Dr Sibusiso Sibisi, president of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), was awarded the Order of Mapugubwe in silver by president Thabo Mbeki, at the Union buildings, in Pretoria, this morning.
According to the presidency, Sibisi was recognised for his contribution in the IT field in SA, "contributing to the development of research and technology, and providing business technology with analyses and strategies".
The Order of Mapungubwe is awarded to South African citizens for achievements that have impacted internationally and served the interests of SA. The third category in this order is sliver, awarded for excellent achievement.
According to the CSIR Web site, Sibisi took office as president of the CSIR on 1 January 2002. He previously held the position of deputy vice-chancellor (research and innovation) at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
Born in Mariannhill, KwaZulu-Natal, Sibisi completed a BSc (Hons) in physics in London and obtained a PhD from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), Cambridge University, in 1983. Sibisi joined the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics, University of the Witwatersrand in 1984 and was a Fulbright Fellow at the California Institute of Technology in 1988. He returned to Cambridge in 1989 to assume a research position at DAMTP and in 1991 co-founded a research-based small enterprise at Cambridge.
On his return to SA in 1997, Sibisi joined Plessey as executive director, before joining UCT. He is well known in science circles for the role he played as chairperson of the National Advisory Council on Innovation. He is the chairperson of the Denel board and a board member of Liberty Life.
SIbisi has also been credited with providing the leadership to create the Meraka Institute (African Advanced Institute for Information and Communications Technology), in response to a call by Mbeki to create such as body.
The CSIR is the biggest organisation of its kind in Africa and conducts about 10% of the continent's research and development. It employs more than 2 300 people and more than half of these are researchers.
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