Archives
Top inventor is UCT's newest A-rated researcher
6 March 2012
UCT's top inventor, Professor Ed Rybicki of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, is UCT's newest A-rated researcher, following the release of the latest National Research Foundation (NRF) ratings.
This brings UCT's tally of A-rated researchers to 31.
In addition, Dr David Braun of the Department of Archaeology and Dr Amanda Weltman of the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics were given P-ratings (President's Awards). Both Professors George Ekama and Hans-Peter Kunzi have retained their A ratings. Ekama, of the Department of Civil Engineering, is an internationally renowned expert in waste-water treatment. Kunzi, of the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, is one of UCT's most influential mathematicians and the leader of the university's Topology and Category Theory Research Group since 2001.
A-ratings are awarded to "researchers who are unequivocally recognised by their peers as leading international scholars in their field". P-rated researchers are young researchers (normally younger than age 35) "who, on the basis of exceptional potential demonstrated in their published doctoral work and/or their early post-doctoral careers, are considered likely to become future international leaders in their field".
Rybicki's impressive credentials include his 25-year career in plant virology and plant biotechnology and, since 1997, in vaccinology. His work on transgenic resistance to viruses in plants, begun by him and Professor Jennifer Thomson in the 1980s, culminated in 2007 in his lab engineering transgenic resistance to maize streak disease into maize - a development that is potentially of enormous economic benefit to small-scale farmers throughout Africa and the rest of the world.
However, Rybicki's greatest advances in the past decade have been in the field of plant-made vaccines.
"He has made a huge contribution to research in the amazing notion of using plants as production systems for vaccine antigens, and he has established one of the best labs in the world for this purpose," said deputy vice-chancellor Professor Danie Visser. "On top of this, he is a shining example of someone engaged in the full spectrum of the innovation chain. With 44 patents, he is also UCT's top inventor."
