Economic and Management Sciences
World Trade Organisation Chair (WTO)
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Chair holder, Prof Wilma Viviers, is the International Trade, leader of the Trade and Development (TRADE) research focus area and NRF-rated researcher at the North-West University, Potchefstroom campus. The Chair’s research focuses on Export promotion, Competitive Intelligence and Economic development to ultimately improve and promote South Africa’s export opportunities. The Chair is nationally and internationally known for her publications in the fields of Competitive Intelligence and Export promotion that appears in more than 50 peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and national policy reports.
Contact details
- Prof Wilma Viviers
- Wilma.Viviers@nwu.ac.za
- 018 299 1445
Education
EDTP SETA research chair in Early Childhood Education
Prof Rosemary has been appointed as the ETDP-SETA Chair of Early Childhood Education and Professor Bongani Bantwini is the Professor of Schooling. Their brief was to investigate the supply and demand for scarce and critical skills in these two important sectors. Their findings showed the need for improvement in qualifications of stakeholders in the ECD sector and correct utilization of teachers in their subject areas at schools. Training needs to be monitored across the board with a view to standardization and better quality control. Finally, all stakeholders need to be accountable for the implementation of the ECD policy and teachers need a greater agency in the development of policies, not only through union representation.
Contact details
- Prof Rosemary Wildsmith-Cromarty
UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning and OER (Open Educational Resources)
Contact details
- Prof Jako Olivier
Engineering
DST/NRF Research Chair in Coal Research (SARChI)
DST/NRF Research Chair in Biofuels and Other Clean Alternative Fuels (SARChI)
The main objective of this chair is to develop waste-based biorefinery. As our population increases there is more and more waste being generated and by using these waste for fuels and chemicals we’re not only making alternative green fuels but also reducing the waste. Waste treatment is already a vast problematic subject globally, with our research in place, waste can be transformed into usable feasible products. Many of the chemicals that we use in South Africa comes from fossil-based backgrounds such as petrol, diesel, and coal, our aim is to get replacements for these fossil fuels, since they are not renewable sources and their emissions are harmful to the environment. A major advancement of the bio-products we’re producing is that their emissions are not nearly as dangerous to the environment as the impact of fossil fuels. One of the biggest reasons for this chair is not just to develop the research, not just to get the papers out and do the conference presentations, but also to develop pilot plants that can demonstrate how the technology works. One of these pilot plants is the only continuous Hydrothermal liquefaction plant in Africa hosted at faculty of engineering of the NWU, the only one in Africa and the largest one in the world. The purpose of the plant is to use waste, especially landfill waste, municipal solid waste or sewerage waste and to transform it into various other bio-products, one of the products that come out is bio-oil. Bio-oil has potential to replace 32% of our diesel imports at the moment. So if you think about your pocket and how much you pay for petrol, it makes a huge impact on the petrol price. Another product that comes from our plant is called biochar. We use the biochar to produce green coal and we have estimated, that it can replace 23.8% of coal demand in South Africa. The upside of biochar is that it not unhealthy for the environment, therefore it has the potential to help ESKOM stay within their emission limits when used as green coal.
Contact details
- Prof Sanette Marx
DST/NRF Research Chair in Nuclear Engineering (SARChI)
Contact details
- Prof Jat du Toit
ESKOM EPPEI Specialisation Centre for Emission Control / Eskom Research Chair in Emission Control (ECEC)
Eskom Research Chair in Emission Control (ECEC). The Eskom funded research chair (since 2016 also known as the EPPEI Specialisation Center (SC) for Emissions Control) continued with studies in:
- Quantifying the existing emissions from Eskom power stations of greenhouse gases and pollutants.
- Optimising mitigation technologies for particulates, SO2 NOx, CO2 and Hg for South African coal conditions and characteristics, with a strong emphasis on particulate and SO2 control in the immediate future.
- Understanding the physical environment of the emissions as well as the atmosphere into which they are released. Of particular interest is the impact of emissions on air quality, long-term deposition to the biosphere and hydrosphere and contributions to the atmospheric greenhouse gas load.
Contact details
- Proff Hein Neomagus & Stuart Piketh
Health Sciences