Two ICT-related research chairs were among the 51 awarded this morning by science and technology minister Mosibudi Mangena.
The move forms part of the South African Research Chairs Initiative, which saw 21 chairs being awarded in December 2006. The project has already been allocated R200 million and hopes to appoint 210 research chairs by the year 2010.
The overall aim of the project is to reverse SA's brain drain to a "brain gain" and "contribute to stimulating strategic research across the knowledge spectrum", according to the ministry. It forms part of the national system of innovation and is ahead of schedule - the initial plan was to announce 35 new chairs at this stage. There are already 59 Msc and PhD students studying under the first 21 chairs appointed, thanks to bursaries from the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
The first IT-related researcher honoured this morning is Professor Sandra Klevansky, who was awarded a chair in complex systems at the University of Pretoria. Klevansky is an IT strategist who is employed by Deutsche Bahn, Frankfurt, and has lectured on various topics within physics, mathematical methods in physics, and IT.
The second, Professor Francesco Petruccione, was awarded a research chair in quantum information processing and communication at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Born in Italy, Petruccione is a professor of theoretical physics at UKZN.
Speaking this morning at the Cape Town press announcement of the new chairs, Mangena said: "No nation can ever suffer from an over-production of knowledge workers. In effect, the more you have, the more you will need".
He said his department received 146 pre-proposals in the run-up to the announcement. The DST identified 108 candidates who then vied for the final 51 seats.
The seats awarded cover a diverse range of research fields, including law, poverty and inequality research, language and social change, as well as space science and infectious diseases research.
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