Award for long-serving member of the MSIT

Awards for members of the MSIT are coming thick and fast these days, and the team would like to congratulate Prof. Lesley Cornish on receiving recognition for her outstanding contribution to Science, Technology and Innovation in South Africa through research capacity development. The award was presented at the 15th NSTF-BHP Billiton Awards gala dinner held in Gauteng on 27 June 2013. Prof. Cornish received the award in the category:  To a Researcher, for an outstanding contribution to SETI through Research Capacity Development over the last 5 to 10 years – sponsored by Eskom. Not only a researcher of renown in her own right, Lesley has been tireless in her efforts to help create the next generation of Materials Scientists in South Africa, particularly in the local population. Lesley has always been involved with the supervision of Postgraduate students, even when working at Mintek, the S. African research Institute for minerals processing and metallurgical engineering, Lesley was co-supervising students at the University of Witwatersrand and the University of the Cape. In 2007, she took over the directorship of the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials, and part of the remit was to increase the number of S. African Materials Science students, especially black and female students. With the funds that were made available, she set up a network of Universities throughout S. Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Nigeria and Botswana specifically to encourage and develop the next generation of academics through collaborative research. Such has been her success that the provision of funds may well be extended through to the end of 2016. Always a vibrant and lively participant at MSIT meetings, the team extend the warmest of congratulations to one of its favourite members.