Professor Moses Chimbari: College of Health Sciences Dean of Research thanks Ramjugernath for delivering an inspirational presentation.
This inspirational talk was recently delivered to College of Health Science’s staff and postgraduate students by UKZN’s Pro-Vice Chancellor: Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship; Professor Deresh Ramjugernath.
Ramjugernath, a pre-eminent scientist in the field of chemical engineering and specifically in Thermodynamics achieved full professorship at the young age of 31, the fastest rise to full professorship recorded on the continent. Ramjugernath said that achieving full professorship at the age of 31 was as a result of, ‘having a passion and a drive coupled with a reasonable intellect to achieve’. He went on to state that ambitious people produce the goods and have a strong self-belief and determination to succeed.
Ramjugernath mentioned that modern universities need to make a major impact on society. This is the vision of UKZN which inspired the institution to create the position he currently holds. Ramjugernath’s post as Pro-VC would entail packaging products that UKZN produces for commercial use to benefit the country. In this way, UKZN as an institution of higher learning would be able to assess the impact it is making on society and not just publishing research to comply with performance management goals or for the mere sake of publishing.
Ramjugernath expressed the view that research should uplift the lives of all South Africans. ‘True sustainable growth and social upliftment in South Africa is only possible by moving our economy to a knowledge-based one. This we can achieve by generating high quality research and the application of commercialization of intellectual property which is the key to moving us to a knowledge economy,’ he said.
Article issued by UKZN