Thandiwe Sithole Author & Editor

Freeman Ntuli is a Professor in the Department of Chemical, Materials and Metallurgical Engineering at the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) and a Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town and has about 20 years of experience working in academia, industry and government regulatory agencies. His main areas of research are in environmental process engineering and hydrometallurgy. He has published extensively in the areas of waste valorisation, industrial wastewater treatment and circular and sustainable chemical engineering. Prof Ntuli is rated as an established researcher by the National Research Foundation (South Africa), is a Chartered member of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) and is a Chartered Scientist (CSci).

Tebogo Mashifana is an educator and a researcher specializing in circular economy research. With a wealth of experience in the field, Mashifana holds a DPhil in Engineering and has made significant contributions to sustainable resource management. Her expertise lies in waste reduction strategies, green economy, resource efficiency and recovery, and the implementation of circular economy models across various sectors. As an accomplished author, Mashifana has published numerous journal articles, offering valuable insights into the intersection of environmental engineering and circular economy principles. Mashifana's dedication to mentoring students and driving interdisciplinary collaboration underscores her commitment to advancing sustainable development practices. Through her work, Mashifana continues to inspire positive change and promote a more sustainable future.

Thandiwe Sithole is an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, within the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. Her research interests focus on Environmental engineering with a particular focus on the circular economy through waste valorization and solidification together with remedial treatment for wastewater using secondary resources, turning industrial solid waste into useful building and construction material, and resource recovery. The main goal of her research is to develop zero-waste discharge models and value-added products from waste material for use in different building and construction applications. Her research areas are driven by the need to attain or achieve the United Nations' sustainable developmental goals. Since her employment at UJ in 2016, Dr. Sithole has attracted over 2.3 million rands in grants and 5.7 million as a co-investigator. She has won numerous awards including the NRF Research Excellence Award for Early Career/Emerging Researchers in Engineering and the Outstanding Contribution in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (Inspiring fifty) award. Dr Sithole is an active member of technical committees, contributing to the advancement of Engineering, the circular economy, societal impact, and sustainable development goals. She serves in the Department of Higher Education and Training subpanel: Engineering and Technology for evaluating 2023 research outputs. She has a Google Scholar citation of 346 and Scopus h-indices of 11. Dr. Sithole has 12 synergistic international collaborations and remains passionate about research excellence. Her research is incredibly beneficial to South Africa, which paved the way for her appointment as a board member and technical advisory chair at the platinum incubator (TPI). She was strategically chaperoning the TPI in executing industrial application duties by providing innovative and holistic support to PGM beneficiation.

Thabo Falayi holds a BSc (Hons) in Applied Chemistry (first class) from the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe, MTech: Chemical Engineering Technology and D.Phil: Civil Engineering from the University of Johannesburg. Thabo has over 10 years industrial experience as Product Development Chemist and Sampling & Water Treatment Chemist where he oversaw analytical method development and validation together sampling method validation. He is a fellow of the African Science Leadership Programme. He has published 42 peer reviewed research articles in Environmental Engineering with google scholar h index is 10 and i10 index is 11 with over 397 citations. He has lectured chemical engineering at University of Johannesburg, Malawi University of Science and Technology and UNISA. He is currently a lecturer in chemical engineering in the Mining, Civil and Process Engineering department at the Namibia University of Science and Technology. He is also a trained mentor in innovation with a particular emphasis on human centered design, agile project management and systems design approach.