Siphesihle Robin Nxele recently won a Women in Science Award in the category of the DST Fellowship Awards. This award is made to five women under 35 who are completing Masters or Doctoral studies. The awards recognise outstanding ability and potential.
Ms Nxele's love for science started at school in Mandeni, the small KwaZulu-Natal town in which she grew up. Ms Nxele finished her schooling career at Pietermaritzburg Girls' High School, completing her matric with distinction.
Ms Nxele studied for a BSc at Rhodes University, majoring in geology and chemistry. She completed an honours degree at the same university, passing with distinction and academic colours.
Ms Nxele is currently completing her MSc in Chemistry under the supervision of Distinguished Professor Tebello Nyokong. Ms Nxele's master's research is on the fabrication of electrochemical sensors via electrografting and click chemistry using phthalocyanines and other nanomaterials. Click chemistry has been used mostly in organic reactions but recently proved very useful for the covalent attachment of molecules on solid conducting substrates. Ms Nxele reckons that electochemical detection using sensors can minimise costs and produce reusable and stable devices that can be used in fields such as medicine and industry.
Ms Nxele and her team recently had a paper accepted for publication in peer-reviewed journal, Electroanalysis. In 2015, Ms Nxele was afforded an opportunity to visit a research laboratory in Japan for two months as an exchange student. She also received the Investec Top 100 General Excellence Award in 2014.
Article Source: New Age