Mail & Guardian: Creating African Science Networks

Professor Lesley Cornish has been supervising or co-supervising students since 1990. While working at Mintek, she also co-supervised students at Wits and the University of the Western Cape, the latter under scarce skills.

Prior to 2003, she had graduated five PhD students and eight MSc students, of whom one was black and six were female. Since then, she has graduated five PhD students and 13 MSc students, of whom nine were black and four were female.

She was invited to take over the directorship of the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials in 2007. Part of the purpose of the centre is to increase the number of South African students, especially black and female students.

In 2008, there was a call from Carnegie to establish a sub-Saharan network in a number of fields, including materials. Article here (page 9/10).