Award: Engineering capacity development over the last 5-10 years, sponsored by Eskom

“A theme that runs through my research is how to use carbon-containing wastes and convert them to fuel and electricity to supply energy and jobs to communities, while cleaning up the environment,” says Prof Hildebrandt.

Prof Diane Hildebrandt has achieved the ideal mix of chemical engineering research and its practical applications to find and implement effective solutions to global challenges such as energy shortage, carbon dioxide emissions, global warming and waste disposal. “A theme that runs through my research is how to use carbon-containing wastes and convert them to fuel and electricity to supply energy and jobs to communities, while cleaning up the environment,” she says. Hildebrandt is director of the Material and Process Synthesis Research Unit and is a professor of chemical engineering at Unisa. She says she would like to be at the forefront of finding ways to supply Africa and the rest of the world with green, sustainable energy. (Read more about her in the Mail & Guardian article. Mail & Guardian is an NSTF media partner.)