Academic and research staff
Nelius Boshoff
Professor Nelius Boshoff is an NRF-rated researcher who specialises in studies of (1) research utilisation and the societal impact of research, (2) research collaboration and (3) bibliometrics with a focus on Africa. He has a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Stellenbosch University, on the topic of knowledge utilisation in the South African wine industry.
Jan Botha
Professor Jan Botha is a professor at CREST. His research interests include higher education policy and planning in South Africa, the positioning of universities, academic organisation, postgraduate supervision, and the theory and practice of Institutional Research.
Nico Cloete
Professor Nico Cloete is a professor at CREST in the area of higher education studies. He is the former director of the Centre for Higher Education Trust (CHET) and coordinator of the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (HERANA). He is also a guest professor at the University of Oslo.
Karien Connoway
Karien Connoway is a Research Assistant at CREST working predominantly in the area of science communication.
Marina Joubert
Dr Marina Joubert is a senior science communication researcher at CREST. After working as a science communication manager and consultant for two decades, she joined Stellenbosch in 2015. In addition to coordinating and presenting an online science communication course with a focus on Africa, she teaches science communication within an MPhil programme on science and technology studies. In 2017, she completed her PhD, focused on the communication behaviour of publicly visible scientists in South Africa.
Johann Mouton
Professor Johann Mouton is professor in, and director of the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) and the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence for Scientometrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (SciSTIP). His research interests are the philosophy and methodology of the social sciences, higher education knowledge production, sociology of science, scientometrics and science policy studies.
Nozipho Ngwabi
Nozipho Ngwabi is an Evaluation Researcher at CREST. In this role, she is responsible for research, teaching and support to Postgraduate Diploma (PGD) and MPhil Students.
Heidi Prozesky
Heidi Prozesky is currently an associate professor at CREST. As CREST hosts the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Scientometrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (SciSTIP), she is also a research member of this Centre of Excellence.
Tikwiza Silubonde
Tikwiza Silubonde is a lecturer in Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) at CREST. In this role, she is responsible for teaching data collection methods for evaluation research to Postgraduate Diploma (PGD) students.
Robert Tijssen
Professor Dr Robert Tijssen is professor at CREST and a board member of SciSTIP. He holds the Chair of Science and Innovation Studies at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He is a research fellow at the LDE Center for Frugal innovation in Africa (an inter-university research consortium of Leiden University, Delft University of Technology and Erasmus University Rotterdam), and one of the international research partners at the Centre for Global Higher Education (University College London, United Kingdom).
Milandré van Lill
Dr Milandré van Lill is a senior researcher at CREST where she has been involved in a number of research projects since 2012. Her main research interests include human capacity for higher education and science and technology, the sociology of science and research methods and methodology.
Lauren Wildschut
Dr Lauren Wildschut is currently the academic coordinator of the Monitoring and Evaluation Programme at CREST, Stellenbosch University where she is responsible for the postgraduate diploma, Masters and PhD in Evaluation Studies. She is also the deputy director of the Evaluation Research Agency (ERA) which has conducted evaluation studies in several African countries since 2000 in the fields of education, higher education and health.
CREST Administrative Unit
Marthie van Niekerk
Centre administrative manager
Marthie van Niekerk is the Centre Administrative Manager of CREST (including SciSTIP and SciCOM) and the executive assistant to Prof Johann Mouton. Until August 2014 her duties included the programme administration of the postgraduate programmes (Monitoring and Evaluation &Science and Technology Studies) until July 2014.
Bernia Drake
Postgraduate administrative co-ordinator
Bernia Drake joined the Centre in July 2016 as postgraduate administrative co-ordinator. Ms Drake previously worked as programme coordinator at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Tygerberg Campus (Stellenbosch University).
Nigel Jansen
Technical officer
Nigel Jansen joined CREST in December 2011 as administrative assistant. He previously worked at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology. Nigel is responsible for all technical administration at CREST.
Rolene Langford
Short course and events co-ordinator
Rolene Langford handles the SciSTIP, SciCOM and CREST financial administration, and also coordinates all the short courses and events within CREST.
Lenny Poole
Technical assistant
Lenny Poole joined the CREST in October 2014. He manages the facilities and is responsible for all venue bookings at CREST.
CREST Knowledge Unit
Herman Redelinghuys
Database manager
Herman Redelinghuys joined the Centre in January 2015 as part of the Knowledge Management team. He worked as an independent ITC consultant for 11 years and is experienced in IT systems management and support. Herman completed a B.Tech degree in Electrical Engineering through UNISA.
Kyle Ford
Database assistant
Kyle Ford joined the CREST team in March 2017 as a database assistant. He is responsible for assisting the team with database capturing and cleaning. He studied at the University of the Western Cape and completed his BA Honours in 2015. Kyle Previously worked at the City of Cape Town as a development information analysis intern.
Lynn Lorenzen
Information officer
Lynn Lorenzen joined the Centre staff in the beginning of July 2002 as the centre information officer. She holds a Bachelor in Arts and Higher Education Diploma from the University of Stellenbosch. She handles all administration, cataloguing and queries /searches with regard to the content of the Documentation Centre.
Ian van der Linde
Database specialist
Ian is a Database Specialist at CREST. He is a certified Linux systems administrator and software developer with experience in High Performance Computing, automation, orchestration, large digital repositories and natural language processing. Ian completed his master’s degree in 2020, focusing on parallel and distributed sentiment analysis in a NoSQL environment.
Annemarie Visagie
Senior research assistant
Annemarie Visagie joined the Centre in May 2003 to form part of the research assistant team working on SA Knowledgebase. She studied at the University of Stellenbosch and completed her Honours (Psychology) degree in 2000. She is also a psychometrist, registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa.
Extraordinary Professors
Rodrigo Costas
Professor Rodrigo Costas is a senior researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University (the Netherlands), as well as an extraordinary associate professor at the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) of Stellenbosch University (South Africa).
Lars Guenther
Dr Lars Guenther is Senior Research Associate in the Cluster of Excellence on “Climate, Climatic Change, and Society“ (CliCCS) at University of Hamburg, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), and Extraordinary Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
Research Fellows
Sara Grobbelaar
Professor Sara Grobbelaar is a part-time researcher in CREST and SciSTIP. Sara’s research interests are national and regional systems of innovation, STI policy, Technology Management and sustainable development. Sara has completed a wide range of consulting projects as a management consultant which includes the development of modelling studies, a regional economic road map for Gauteng Department of Economic Development, innovation strategies and sector development strategies.
Michael Kahn
Professor Michael Kahn is a policy analyst and evaluator in the fields of research and innovation. He has been advisor to the Ministers of Education, and Science and Technology, a chief director in the Gauteng Provincial Government, analyst in the Centre for Education Policy Development, professor of science education in Botswana and South Africa and executive director of the Human Sciences Research Council.
Peter Weingart
Professor Dr Peter Weingart is professor emeritus of sociology and science policy at the University of Bielefeld, Germany and former director of the Institute for Science and Technology Studies (IWT 1993-2009) as well as of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) 1989 – 1994 at that university. He was a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin (1983/84), and visiting fellow at Harvard University (1984/85) as well as the Getty Research Institute (2000).
Postdoctoral Fellows
Isabel Basson
Dr Isabel Basson was awarded the degree PhD (science and technology studies) in 2018 by Stellenbosch University. Her doctoral studies focussed on investigating the open access citation advantage by using multiple measures. Her current research interests are bibliometrics and scientometrics with a focus on open access.
Jaco Blanckenberg
Dr Jaco Blanckenberg is a postdoctoral fellow at CREST and SciSTIP. He has a background in nuclear and theoretical particle physics with a strong focus on numerical calculations and numerical modelling. He obtained his PhD in physics at Stellenbosch University. His post graduate work focused on Monte Carlo simulations and numerical modelling.
Bankole Falade
Dr Bankole Falade is a scientist, journalist and social psychologist with teaching and research interests in science (and health) communication; science, religion and public life; media and communications studies, text mining and survey research.
Corlia Meyer
Dr Corlia Meyer is a postdoctoral research fellow at CREST and SciCOM. Her main research interests are environmental communication and public perception studies, focusing on the South African public.
Similo Ngwenya
Dr Similo Ngwenya is a postdoctoral fellow at CREST.
Francois van Schalkwyk
Dr Francois van Schalkwyk is a postdoctoral research fellow at CREST. His main areas of interest include higher education studies, critical data studies and science communication.
About CREST
CREST covers the broad fields of bibliometrics and scientometrics, research on higher education knowledge production, human resources in science and technology, research evaluation and impact assessment studies and studies on the communication patterns of scientists.
