Wits University’s Professor Zeblon Vilakazi has been appointed as vice-chancellor and principal from 1 January 2021.
As Professor Adam Habib prepares to leave his position as Wits University vice-chancellor and principal at the end of the year, the current vice-principal and deputy vice-chancellor for Research and Postgraduate Studies at Wits is getting ready to take over. Wits announced on 25 June that Professor Zeblon Vilakazi will be appointed as the fifteenth vice-chancellor and principal of the university from 1 January 2021. Professor Vilakazi said, “It is an honour for me to have been appointed to this prestigious position.”
Wits’ research output has more than doubled, with the university increasingly producing more research with impact. He is widely published (325 papers) and highly cited with an h-index of 70. The professor added, “I am committed to working with my esteemed colleagues, fellow academics and smart, savvy students to create new knowledge, and to develop the high-level skills required to move South Africa, and our economy forward. We also need to continue to develop the originators, innovators and critical thinkers who can help us solve the problems of the 21st Century.”
No stranger to technology and the digital world, Professor Vilakazi chairs South Africa’s National Quantum Computing Working Committee which seeks to develop a Framework for Quantum Computing and Quantum Technology-driven research and innovation in South Africa. He is also instrumental in ensuring that Wits and other African universities have access to quantum computing networks. Chairperson of the Wits Council, the highest decision-making body of the university, Isaac Shongwe expressed, “Professor Zeblon Vilakazi is the epitome of a world-class researcher who is globally recognised for his scientific work, and for his contribution towards developing higher education in Africa. He is a truly talented individual who is an inspiring exemplar for all Africans.”
Professor Vilakazi is also globally recognised for his expert knowledge in physics and nuclear research. He was instrumental in establishing South Africa’s first experimental high-energy physics research group. He also served as a visiting scientist at the Atomic Energy Commission and Alternative Energy in Saclay, France. “We are confident that Professor Vilakazi will ably lead Wits to its centenary in 2022 and beyond, steward a new vision for the academy, and reinvigorate the academic project in a higher education context that is rapidly changing,” concluded Shongwe.
