​Over the past few years, Stellenbosch University (SU) has done well at the annual National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) Awards. This year should be no different. With six researchers among the finalists at the 2015/16 NSTF and South32 Awards, the odds are definitely stacked in SU's favour.

The NSTF/South32 award ceremony recognises, celebrates and rewards outstanding excellence in Science, Engineering, Technology (SET) and Innovation in South Africa.

The winners will be announced on Thursday 30 June at a gala event at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park where Ms Naledi Pandor, Minister of Science and Technology, and official Patron of the NSTF/South32 Awards, will be presenting the prizes.

According to the organisers, it is an extraordinary honour to be a finalist. Four of the six SU finalists will each be competing in two categories.

Prof Bert Klumperman, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science, is a finalist in the category: Lifetime Award for an outstanding contribution to SET and Innovation by an individual over a period of 15 years or more. He is also finalist in the category:  Research or Engineering Capacity Development.

Klumperman is regarded as a world leader in Polymer Science, especially for his work on nanomedicine and the use of polymers for biomedical applications. He received an A-rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF) and also won the Gold Medal of the South African Chemical Institute (2013) and the SASOL Chemistry Innovator of the Year Award (2015). Klumperman holds the SARChi Chair in Advanced Macromolecular Architectures, co-authored around 170 scientific publications and supervised many postgraduate students.

Also a finalist in the category: Lifetime Award for an outstanding contribution to SET and Innovation by an individual over a period of 15 years or more is Prof Michael Samways, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology. He is also a finalist in the category: NSTF-GreenMatter Award towards achieving biodiversity conservation, environmental sustainability and a greener economy.

Samways contributed significantly to insect conservation and biodiversity science, in particular, over the past 40 years and helped restore the Cousine Island in the Seychelles to its natural state. He is the team leader of the Mondi Ecological Networks Programme, a research group at SU that develops and fine-tunes design and management principles for ecological networks. Recognized as the most prolific producer of research globally in insect conservation, Samways has 375 scientific publications, including 15 books, to his name. He has also received many awards.

Samways' colleague in the Faculty of AgriSciences, Prof Linus Opara, is a finalist in the categories: Research or Engineering Capacity Development and TW Kambule Awards for research and its outputs. Opara is Distinguished Professor and DST/NRF SARChI Chair in Postharvest Technology in the Department of Horticultural Sciences.

Opara is recognised globally as the leading individual researcher on postharvest technology of pomegranates. The NRF recently estimated that the efforts of his multi-disciplinary team in developing handling technologies for this anti-oxidant rich fruit work has provided over R65 million of direct and indirect benefits to SA's fledgling pomegranate industry. Opara won numerous international awards, most notably the AU (African Union) Kwame Nkrumah Continental Scientific Award for Life and Earth Science (2016), and the IMPRESSA Award (2015) from the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture.

Another finalist in two categories is Prof Johann Görgens, Director of the Centre for Process Engineering in the Department of Process Engineering, and also Director of Stellenbosch Biomass Technologies (Pty) Ltd. He received a nomination for a TW Kambule Award for research and its outputs and an award for Research or Engineering Capacity Development.

​Görgens' research focuses on plant biomass as a sustainable alternative for the provision of humanity's needs for fuels, chemicals, materials and energy. Plant biomass represents an alternative, potentially low-carbon, resource with multiple potential applications in the production of fuels, chemicals, materials and electricity. Görgens has 102 publications in international, peer-reviewed scientific journals and three book chapters to his name. He also serves on the editorial board of Biotechnology for Biofuels.

Görgens' colleague, Prof Coenraad Fourie of the Department of Electrical And Electronic Engineering, will be competing in the category: Research leading to innovation by a Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise.

Fourie developed engineering software that verifies the correct layout of integrated circuits used in superconducting supercomputers. The software is sold through SUN Magnetics (Pty) Ltd, a company he founded in 2015. Physicists, engineers, research laboratories and research and development companies in the USA, Canada, France, Germany, China and Japan are using the software. Fourie received a B-rating from the NRF and published extensively in peer-reviewed international journals.

Also among the finalist is Willem Botes, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Genetics, who was nominated in the category:  Research leading to innovation by a corporate organisation. A plant breeder and geneticist, Botes set up the Plant Breeding Laboratory (SU-PBL) at the Welgevallen Experimental Farm in 2007. This laboratory currently leads a national wheat pre-breeding platform funded by Grain SA and the national Department of Science and Technology. The cultivars and germplasm released by the SU-PBL annually help producers stay profitable by ensuring higher yields and cutting down on input costs.

• ​Photo: Proff Bert Klumperman, Michael Samways, Linus Opara, Johann Görgens, Coenraad Fourie and Mr Willem Botes.