Professor Werner E. van Zyl

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

I have earned a MSc degree in 1992 on synthetic organometallic Chemistry, working on amino(thio) gold and platinum carbene complexes at the former Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) under the supervision of Helgard G. Raubenheimer.  Following a 2.5 year stint in the chemical industry (1992-1994) working at Implats, I pursued a PhD degree in Chemistry at Texas A&M University under the supervision of John P. Fackler, Jr. The Fackler group worked within the auspices of the Laboratory for Molecular Structure and Bonding under the direction of the late F. Albert Cotton. My academic genealogy also includes Chemistry Nobel Prize laureate G. Wilkinson (1973).  Following my PhD, I was appointed a NWO Postdoctoral Associate (1999-2003) in the Inorganic Materials Science Group, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands working under the supervision of Henk Verweij (1999-2001) and Dave H.A. Blank (2001-2003).  After my postdoctoral stay, I was appointed Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in September 2003. In May 2008, I relocated from UJ to the UKZN and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014. 

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ACADEMIC INTERESTS

My research interests throughout my MSc and PhD studies focused on molecular gold chemistry where I am now among the top-three academics working at a South African University having the most highly cited papers in this area of research. The gold work is typically combined with P/S or Se-based ligand systems, which I have investigated for over 15 years, especially the dithiophosphonates, and wrote two authoritative reviews on this topic.  My postdoctoral experience allowed me to gain access to materials science which I now also include in my research, especially in the area of nanomaterials chemistry associated with sustainable energy and catalysis. 

 

During the past few years my research profile changed dramatically and all research is now focused on the areas of Water, Energy and Biomass. 

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CURRENT SITUATION

My group typically contains approximately 10 postgraduate students (MSc and PhD).  

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I have an ISI h-index of 21, authored or co-authored over 70 papers which have been cited over 1100 times to date. I have good collaboration with several national and international scientists, and was on sabbatical leave at Imperial College London and University of Toulouse during the last 6 months of 2014.