The lasting effect of a traumatic ordeal not only plays mind games with people who subsequently develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — a trauma-induced, often debilitating mental disorder that counts prolonged flashbacks, nightmares, and severe panic attacks among its many symptoms. It also leaves physical ‘fingerprints’ in the body that can be so permanent that it predisposes the individual to chronic metabolic diseases such as diabetes and heart conditions.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and data science have a critical role to play in policy decisions around an array of topics, be it public health, smart cities, or sustainable development.
Imagine a world in which drug development is faster, more precise, and more affordable. As a scientific start-up company, Nanosene (Pty) Ltd is committed to reshaping the foundations of drug discovery and development to ensure just that.
We are committed to achieving excellence in research, and to ensuring that our work contributes to the well-being of society. Click on the links below to read about some of the new interdisciplinary knowledge being generated and the research fields emerging at the University.
Our strategic research areas help ensure that our work connects the university with the world. Explore our research focus and its relevance to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, the African Union's Agenda 2063 and the National Development Plan here.
At SU, we are committed to achieving excellence in research and scholarship, and to ensuring that our work contributes to the well-being of society. This section features profiles of some of our prolific researchers whose work is featured on this site. Some of them are world leaders in their respective fields. New profile features on some of our many innovators, postdoctoral students and emerging researchers will be added regularly.
Dr Uhuru Portia Phalafala focuses on black geographies and critical ecological studies from the perspective of black life, which has always been entangled with the natural environment. "The very understanding of the self and who we are and how we relate to the living environment is part of black life," she says.
Seeking to understand the twin scourge of poverty and inequality in South Africa, and figuring out how best to combat it would become the main focus of Prof Servaas van der Berg’s initial studies and, later, his academic career.
Prof Xanthe Hunt’s vision is to transform South Africa’s public mental health services landscape, especially for the two vulnerable population groups that her work focuses on: the youth and people with disability.
STRATEGIC RESEARCH AREAS AT SU
SU’s researchers aim to produce knowledge and have a real societal impact through our five strategic research areas. Identified to assist in achieving the university’s strategic goal of Research for Impact, these areas support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 through interconnected and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Understanding and protecting our planet
Our research focuses on water, energy, food security, urban sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and mitigating environmental risks.
Promoting well-being for all
We prioritise research on communicable and non-communicable diseases, disability, biomedical engineering, sports medicine, and social determinants of health.
Leading technological advancements
Our research focuses on developing new and improved systems and technologies across various sectors, including economics, business, information technology, and infrastructure.
Building an equitable society
Our research addresses gender, racial, and cultural inequalities, while promoting human rights and dignity.
Driving positive change through innovation
We foster creativity and develop innovative solutions to societal challenges like housing, education, and inequality.
The Chair aims to address theoretical, methodological, and empirical gaps in our understanding of social-ecological systems and resilience. The research employs transdisciplinary approaches that integrate methods from the social and natural sciences, while engaging with stakeholders outside academia to generate globally relevant insights in this emerging field, grounded in the southern African context.
Read more about the SARChi in Social-Ecological Systems and Resilience
The research programme of the Chair represents an integrated approach to wine sciences, and combines molecular, cellular and multi-omics biology with traditional wine sciences (oenology). The collaboration network of the Chair also covers and integrates core support disciplines such as bioinformatics, data science, analytical chemistry, sensory science and multi-variate data analytics.
The Chair aims to establish the multi-disciplinary field of mathematical and theoretical physical biosciences as a distinct research strength in SA. The research focus areas are: biodiversity informatics; spatial dynamics; evolutionary game theory; and ecological networks.
Read more about the SARChi in Mathematical and Theoretical Physical Biosciences
The Chair will create opportunities to train the next generation of researchers and graduates and create awareness for young learners on technology solutions and new possibilities of energy sources and their implementations. With the dramatic increase in electrification and renew- ables, a critical aim of this Chair is to investigate a diversified energy mix.
Email Prof Paramespri Naidoo
Read more about the SARChi in Green Hydrogen Integration and Transition
The Chair aims to safeguard biodiversity and the ecosystem services that protected areas provide to people by undertaking excellent research that facilitates evidence-based management of invasions in conservation areas; develop tools that support the cost-efficient yet effective management of alien species in protected areas; and build capacity within conservation agencies to strengthen their ability to meet their legal mandate of managing invasions.
Email Prof Tammy Robinson-Smythe
Read more about the Research Chair in Management of Invasions in Protected Areas
The Chair focuses on research that strengthens and supports crop protection and plant health spheres. Applied research is done across a range of crops, such as table grapes, potatoes, and grains, with, among others, input from the data science and agri-informatics sectors.
The Chair not only provides an opportunity to do important research but also a chance to train future industry leaders and to ensure greater interaction with the fruit industry and other researchers. The research includes ways to eliminate various physiological disorders which occur when apples and pears are stored or ripened after picking.
Read more about the Postharvest Physiology Research Chair in Deciduous Fruit
The Chair explores in detail all aspects of growth, but particularly the dynamics of wood formation (xylogenesis) in the ecologically and commercially important group of genera known as the eucalypts (particularly Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora). This is done through cutting-edge, detailed experimental and observational science, looking at plant growth, wood formation processes, anatomy and ecophysiology; and the development of mathematical, computational models of tree growth and xylem productions.
Read more about the Hans Merensky Chair in Advanced Modelling of Eucalyptus Wood Formation
The purpose of the Chair is to contribute to novel research within the field of machine learning to address ecological problems. Furthermore, the Chair should increase public awareness, facilitate student projects, and contribute to the human capacity development within Africa for machine learning and conservation ecology – as a combined area of research, which is currently lacking in Africa.
Read more about the AIMS-Carnegie Junior Research Chair in Data Science
The focus of the Chair is on the development of novel multi- dimensional and multi-detector approaches for the analysis of complex macromolecular architectures. Their analytical focus is on 2D coupling of various liquid chromatography and fractionation techniques and coupling with information-rich detectors such as light scattering, viscosity, fluorescence, FTIR and mass spectronomy.
The Chair aims to develop knowledge, workflows and models which focus on value generation through understanding the 3D ore body characteristics (e.g. mineralogy, grade, distribution of deleterious elements, envisioned processing behaviour) in a context of the full mine value chain (i.e. geology, mining, comminution, and beneficiation).
Email Dr Bjorn von der Heyden & Dr Margreth Tadie
Read more about African Rainbow Minerals ARM Geometallurgy Research Chair
The Cluster will address both global and inter-continental challenges within the Green Transition category and advance coordinated trans- disciplinary approaches to addressing climate change and biodiversity challenges that are inextricably intertwined, and therefore best addressed simultaneously, as guided by the UNs SDGs.
The Cluster focuses on renewable energy technology development, equitable societal transition, and sustainable education and training. This CoRE hopes to contribute significantly to tackling one of society’s biggest and most pressing needs – the current energy challenges faced within Africa and Europe. It will focus on renewable energy technology development, equitable societal transition, and sustainable education and training.
The SUWI is a multi-disciplinary research collective that recognises the complex nature of water management and supply in a water-scarce country such as SA.
The objective of CRSES is to develop and enhance national capacity in renewable and sustainable energy in support of accelerated and shared economic growth within the area of sustainable energy.
The C I B undertakes research on the biodiversidy consequences of biological invasions, largely through postgraduate student training, research projects and long-term biodiversity monitoring. The Centre aims to reduce the rates and impacts of biological invasions by furthering scientific understanding and predictive capability, and by developing research capacity.
Read more about the Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology
The School is the first of its kind in South Africa that has the status of a Faculty. The aim is to create a transdisciplinary capacity that will combine the climate-related knowledge systems of SU faculties, public sector climate policies and initiatives, private sector climate redress and innovation capacities, and SU’s social impact mission in both academic and applied ways – all in support of the transition to a climate-resilient society and a low-carbon economy.
The Chair focuses on the development of novel approaches to strengthen rehabilitation in the health system. The Chair`s research will position SA as a world leader in enhancing access to rehabilitation and delivering effective, cost-efficient rehabilitation services to address the unmet needs of people disadvantaged by chronic disease and disability in the low- and middle-income settings. In low resource settings, additional costs for chronic disease and disability management simply cannot be absorbed without innovations.
Prof Quinette Louw
Read more about SARChI in Innovative Rehabilitation
The research aim of the Chair is to perform in-depth characterisation of clinical strains of M.tuberculosis and other mycobacterial species isolated from humans and animals on the African continent. Knowledge gained will support the goal of an improved understanding of mycobacterial biology aiding the design of effective tuberculosis vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.
The research focus of the Chair is food environments, nutrition and health, in the context of their influence and impact on the triple burden of malnutrition. In this context, it relates to undernutrition (stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies), over nutrition (overweight and obesity), and consequent non-communicable diseases (diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and cancer). It includes a focus on food systems, food industry, and household status.
Read more about the SARChI in Food, Environments, Nutrition and Health
The Chair focuses on novel and transformative strategies to improve tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis and treatment in children, using family-centered approaches in the context of broader lung and child and maternal health. Evaluation of novel drug regiments accross the age, disease and drug resistance spectrum is a key priority. Diagnostics and biomarkers is another strong focus, given the challenges of robust tuberculosis in children. The clinical research is underpinned by robust surveillance, epidemiological research, health systems, mathematical modelling and socio-behavioural research.
The main focus of the research is to identify immune biomarkers that can be taken into future trials for novel diagnosis, vaccines, and treatment response evaluation. The research group is part of several international consortia that identify – together with US, European and African partners – large cohorts of participants with well-characterised MTB infection and disease phenotypes to search for biomarkers of TB. The group`s work spans the divide between clinical and basic sciences in a high TB prevalence area, and is also working on modern clinical approaches, like research bronchoscopies for site-of-disease investigations and advanced imaging through PET/CT scanning.
The focus of the Chair is to provide a mechanistic modelling approach to analyse pharmaceutical drug effects and identify intervention steps to improve individual and public health. The goal is therefore to construct and validate mathematical models of metabolism in cells and try to simulate the effects of the biochemical mechanisms underlying a disease for disease states at cellular, tissue and whole-body levels. The focus is on several important diseases in the SA context, i.e. malaria, type II diabetes, TB and cancer.
Read more about the SARChI in Mechanistic Modelling of Health and Epidemiology
The Chair aims to close the gap between an in-depth understanding of the biological effects of trauma and disease on skeletal muscle cells and the well-known ability of muscle to gain strength and regenerate from injury. Postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows study these aspects of skeletal muscle at three complementary levels: whole body physiology (real humans); cellular and molecular biology (tissue and cells in culture dishes); and biotechnology (manipulation of regeneration).
Read more about the SARChI in Integrative Skeletal Muscle Physiology, Biology and Biotechnology
Brain diseases are major contributors to the disease burden globally and nationally and schizophrenia makes up a substantial component. It is a puzzling and complex disorder, impacting negatively upon individuals, families and society. The Chair aims to increase the visibility of schizophrenia research and enhance research opportunities for staff and students.
Read more about the Sarah Turoff Endowed Chair in Schizophrenia Research
The principle of this Chair is to implement diverse research projects in the field of drinking water related to human health risk assessment and epidemiology. Multiple environmental factors in water supply and distribution need to be monitored in order to minimise the chance of water becoming a threat to public health. In line with Rand Water`s stated vision to stay at the forefront of water supply and further its international reputation, the aim is to go beyond standard monitoring to develop new strategies with Rand Water for the advancement of water research in service of society.
The Cluster’s priority area is public health and will specifically focus on rare diseases and rare cancers, in addition to pandemic preparedness and infectious diseases.
Read more about the Africa-Europe Clusters of Research Excellence in – Genomics for Health in Africa
The CBTBR combines clinical grassroots investigations into TB with sophisticated laboratory research that involves various departments and disciplines within and beyond the University. Whereas much of the work entails the development of accurate diagnostics and appropriate therapy for MDR and XDR-TB, the Centre has also played an ongoing role in community outreach and awareness to prevent and treat TB.
Read more about the Centre of Excellence for Biomedical TB Research
CERI’s vision is to effectively respond to epidemics through pathogen genomics surveillance to enhance biomedical discovery, improving the treatment, diagnosis and prevention of human disease and generating economic opportunities for Africa. They apply expertise in genomics to identify new variants of pathogens and advance basic and translational science to improve prevention, treatment and vaccines to human disease in Africa.
Read more about the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation
SACEMA specialises in the mathematical modelling of diseases prevalent in SA. The work is multi-disciplinary, combining biological, medical, statistical, mathematical and computing skills to study patterns of disease progression, in space and time, at population and within host levels. The aim of this modelling is to identify the principle causes of diseases and their transmission, and the likely outomes of various interventions, and so to provide a sound scientific basis for health policy.
Prof Frank Tanser
Read more about the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis
The Chair aims to broaden the range of products manufactured from available sugarcane, so as to maximise the economic value extracted beyond conventional products like sugar, electricity, and ethanol. It involves both technology development and assessment, aiming to identify new investment opportunities for diversification of the local and international sugarcane industries.
The Chair focuses on the research and development of various antenna sub-systems for radio astronomy applications. Projects include work on reflector antenna optics, feed antennas, analogue front ends and digital back ends of a variety of radio telescopes – from interferometric dish arrays to large aperture arrays, to specialised single antenna instruments.
The Chair aims to characterise variability in the power system and understand its impacts in support of power system planning and operations. The Chair’s vision is to optimally leverage SU’s existing ecosystem of renewable energy and power system simulation expertise and industry and academic relationships towards developing and strengthening a national competency in power system simulation within South Africa.
The Chair endeavours to develop students, researchers and members of industry with appropriate knowledge and skills in pavement engineering; to develop students and technologies, through research, that will preserve and maintain our environment through developing new materials, processes, and technologies to provide the necessary performance and durability; and to use the circular economy to optimise the benefits of the 4IR and digitisation.
The research focuses on problem-solving in AI, grounded in compu- tational thinking skills and techniques. This includes problem abstraction and decomposition, symbolic modelling, computational logic, and algorithmic problem solving. It is therefore foundational to both symbolic AI with its advanced reasoning capabilities, and non-symbolic (connectionist) AI with its advanced learning capabilities.
The Chair does fundamental and applied AI research, with a specific focus on the design of correct, fast and elegant algorithms for solving important problems, particularly relevant to emerging economies of the Global South, such as securing the cyber vulnerable, SA critical infrastructure, and decision-making processes (also known as knowledge security).
The Chair focuses on research in the fields of smart metering, big-data analytics, internet-of-things technologies, low-power wide-area networks, smart capacity building, hosted software solutions and utility performance forecasting. The Chair will also form partnerships with the other research and funding institutions in the general field of utility solutions, engage in specialised consulting activities for industry and pursue other funding streams.
The Internet of Things encompasses how digital technology and connectivity observe, link, and affect the world around us. It is about connecting many things that previously operated individually. These connections, which include monitoring and control, open opportunities for a plethora of improvements in the way we use and manage the many things around us.
Read more about the Research Chair in the Internet of Things
The NITHeCS leads and coordinates research programmes and fosters education in theoretical physics. Research is conducted mainly in statistical and condensed matter physics; quantum information and computation; high energy physics, namely string theory and matrix models as well as phenomenology.
Read more about the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences
A key element in the purpose and value-proposition of the AUDA-NEPAD CoE-STI is to foster “real and active” two-way flow connection between science, policy, and practice. Strategic priority areas were identified within the Science, Technology, and Innovation domain between SU and CSIR researchers. These areas include: aquaculture; genome editing; telehealth; and cybersecurity.
Read more about the AUDA-NEPAD Centre of Excellence in Science, Technology and Innovation
The Chair provides research capability to support the Gibela Transport Consortium in maintaining X’Trapolis Mega trainsets which will be built at the Consortium’s Dunottar factory. It will create a niche in monitoring applications and asset management technologies for operational Gibela passenger trains.
The cluster’s priority area is innovation and technology and aims to address the effective application of AI, data science and theoretical and computational thinking to tackle pressing global and African healthcare, education, agriculture, energy and infrastructure challenges. It will bring together experts from diverse fields, such as computer science, engineering, mathematics, physics and social sciences to work on complex problems and develop innovative solutions.
Aiming to be a world-class institution for data science and computational thinking in and for Africa, the School works across SU’s ten faculties, generating multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinary collaboration. It also spans the entire academic project, from under- and postgraduate training to research and specialist consultation. Through our new School for Data Science and Computational Thinking, SU is ready to enhance South Africa’s competitiveness in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Read more about the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking
The central concern of this Chair is to deepen our understanding of the complex web of social and environmental dynamics in which commitments to sustainable development must be grounded, through an investigation of these issues in and through the Karoo region of SA. The focus of the Chair is on local understandings of development priorities and needs in a region that has long been marginalised politically and economically.
Read more about the SARChI in the Sociology of Land, Environment and Sustainable Development
This Chair aims to fill the gap that exists in gender-related research and will broaden research access for gender scholars. Most serious societal problems in SA are deeply gendered problems (such as gender- based violence, poverty, land and health issues). In order to deliver a better understanding of women`s citizenship, the research focuses on experiences of women in the political system through representations, the accommodation of their needs and demands in governmental policies, and women`s activism that mobilise demands so that these demands can be included on the political/policy agenda.
The Chair is a multidisciplinary research initiative that aims to bring conceptual clarity to the genealogies of violence and to illuminate the enduring legacies of violent histories and their transgenerational repercussions. At the heart of this work is the “afterlife” of historical trauma – the continuing transgenerational impact of violent pasts shaped by colonialisation, oppression, discrimination, and the destruction of communities. The Chair also seeks to have an impact on public debate and influence audiences at a broader level of society.
Read more about the SARChI in Violent Histories and Transgenerational Trauma
The overall objective of the GENS Trilateral Chair is to build research capacity and produce knowledge across Africa concerning gender-informed innovation and commercialisation opportunities in alternative energy technology and services.
The working definition underpinning the research of the Chair is that Social justice is about the equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms regardless of human diversity reflected in the fair and just distribution of all opportunities, benefits, privileges and burdens in a society or group. The Social Justice M-Plan is the flagship programme of the Law Trust Chair in Social Justice. It is also an avenue for giving effect to the University’s social impact objective, particularly the grand constitutional objective of healing the divisions of the past and transforming structural social relations in society to give effect to the constitutional promise of freeing the potential and improving the quality of life of every citizen. Influenced by 2 years of intensive research and modelled on the US-sponsored post-World World 2 Europe Recovery Marshal Plan, the Social Justice M-Plan is an integrated ground-up civil society plan that seeks to coordinate systematic and integrated academic, business and broader civil society input to support government efforts towards breaking the back of poverty and inequality. Worth noting, is that the research includes auditing and integrating existing social justice research and data while generating new knowledge and information where necessary.
The Chair’s aim is to contribute to deepening a human rights culture in SA through high-quality research and contributing to public debate and advocacy on human rights. The Chair is endowed by the Oppenheimer Foundation to promote the development of human rights law in SA through the three main pillars of academic endeavour – research, teaching and community interaction.
Read more about the HF Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights Law
The Chair will focus on the theory, purpose and principles of regulation in general, and specifically financial regulation law. This will incorporate aspects such as the economics of the financial sector, models of regulation, regulation of different risks in the financial sector, and regional and international financial regulation law. The vision is for the Chair to create a hub around which more focused expertise (both academic and professional) may be co-opted in the various areas of financial regulation. The Chair will also investigate the nature and regulation of technology used in financial markets (so-called “fintech”) to promote the efficient and effective use of these technologies, and how these technologies disrupt traditional financial services and their regulation.
Read more about the Gys Steyn Chair in Financial Regulation Law
The Chair serves as a hub of research and postgraduate training in the field. Through an interdisciplinary lens, the Chair focuses on issue-driven and action research to explore the agenda of science communication for social justice. This enables theoretical and empirical insights into the complex ways in which communication research and practice can positively connect science and society.
The Chair was established with the express purpose of fostering a greater development drive for intellectual property in SA. This is done through high-level academic tuition, expert analysis, private-public coordination, rigorous protective action of established legal principles and pioneering sound adjustments to IP law to increase the production and export of intellectual property and provide adequate protection of contemporary expressions of human intellectual endeavour.
Read more about the Anton Mostert Chair of Intellectual Property
The Chair hosts a centre of knowledge on the scientific study of translation, interpreting and revision/editing. Afrikaans language practice is being researched here and in this way Afrikaans is enhanced as a language of science. This does not happen in isolation within an Afrikaans enclave, but rather within a multilingual and multicultural environment.
Read more about the Ton and Anet Vosloo Research Chair in Afrikaans Language Practice
The Chair will draw on the expertise of the two co-chairholders to integrate in-depth knowledge of complex systems, combined with the conceptual and practical applications of futures studies. This includes specialisation in theories of complex systems and in the practice of futures studies and foresight. The Chair will develop capacities for studying and exploring the nature of complex interdependent social-ecological systems, how change comes about in such systems, and how to create the conditions for ecologically sustainable and socially just futures.
Prof Rika Preiser and Tanja Hichert
Read more about the UNESCO Chair in Complex Systems and Transformative African Futures
The Chair will provide expertise on intercultural competence and integrating in-depth knowledge of intercultural competencies, educational research and capacity development in Africa. It aims to promote an integrated system of research, teaching and training, as well as community engagement and communication. It will facilitate collaboration between high-level, internationally recognised researchers and teaching staff of SU and other institutions in the region and in other regions of the world. The intention of the Chair is therefore to re-think the lens of intercultural competence.
Dr Darla Deardorff and Prof Sarah Howie
Read more about the UNESCO Chair in Intercultural Competences
SCISTIP has five researh focus areas: science in (South) Africa (history, governance, state and trends); human resources for science and technology (the next generation of scientists, scholars and knowledge professionals); research evaluation (assessing the uptake, utilisation and impact of research); science and technology and innovation studies; and communication in and of science.
Read more about the Chair in Science Futures
