The impact of his work, and his supervision of students’ work, is significant in that it has found ways to use less energy to produce work and/or power, which in turn reduces pollution and greenhouse gases. More efficient heat exchangers are important to power generation industries, such as processing, manufacturing, air-conditioning, and refrigeration. Meyer and his colleagues and students have also been responsible for the design and construction of more than 10 state-of-the-art experimental set-ups. These are used for leading-edge research into clean energy.

Since founding Cerg, Meyer has supervised 85 postgraduate students, including 24 successful PhD candidates, the majority of whom are black. In that time, he published 179 articles, almost all of which were co-authored with his students, one of which has since been cited in other research 148 times!

In the last 10 years, Meyer and students at Cerg have produced 254 conference papers, with more than 80% of the students presenting the papers themselves. With Cerg funding, every student on average travelled abroad three times to attend international conferences. Of these, 25 won awards for presenting the best papers. His quest for funding students’ research has raised more than R20-million in funding.

“My career highlights are when my students graduate, write an excellent article, or even update me on the progress they’re making at the universities where they are leading research now, such as MIT, Edinburgh, Cambridge, and Oxford,” Meyer says. “I love hearing their feedback about their professional work, just as much as I love getting photos and updates of their families. My hope is that my students will continue with my work, and mentor others too.” — Kerry Haggard

To read the full Mail & Guardian supplement of articles about the work of all the 2020 Award Winners, click here.