US embassy cable - 05PRETORIA147

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRETORIA 000147 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR OES/PCI/SHAW, OES/STC/ROTTIER 
STATE FOR ECA/PE/V/F/E/EILEEN CONNOLLY 
STATE ALSO FOR AF/S, AF/EPS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12948: N/A 
TAGS: SENV, ECON, PREL, TSPL, SF 
SUBJECT: SOUTH AFRICA - IDENTIFYING CANDIDATES FOR SCIENCE 
ADVISORY CAPACITY PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA 
 
REF: 04 STATE 272708 
 
Sensitive but unclassified. 
 
1. (U) Post welcomes the proposed Science & Technology 
Advisory Capacity Building Partnership and is pleased to 
provide feedback regarding appropriate representation from 
South Africa.  We also support the proposed use of the 
Voluntary Visitor program for a follow-on week of meetings 
and activities in Washington, DC.  We look forward to 
working with OES to implement this program. 
 
GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATION 
 
2. (SBU) Contacts at the Department of Science and 
Technology recently advised EST Officer that the department 
will undergo a restructuring over the next several months, 
to more clearly define its primary missions in frontier 
science and other areas of science activity and cooperation. 
Rather than single out a specific official from the 
department to participate in the capacity building activity, 
we strongly urge OES to send a letter of invitation to the 
Director-General of Science and Technology, Dr. Rob Adam, 
asking him to identify an appropriate representative from 
his Department to represent the South African government. 
The Department has a number of potentially strong candidates 
for participation, and working with Dr. Adam's office to 
identify a candidate will lead to stronger buy-in from the 
top levels of the Department. 
 
UNIVERSITY REPRESENTATION 
 
3. (U) The National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI) is 
appointed by the Minister of Science and Technology to 
advise him (and through him, South Africa's Cabinet) on the 
role and contribution of innovation (including science and 
technology) in promoting and achieving national objectives, 
such as 1) improving and sustaining the quality of life of 
all South Africans; 2) developing human resources for 
science and technology; 3) building the economy; and 4) 
strengthening the South Africa's international 
competitiveness. 
 
4. (U) NACI's 22 members hail from government, industry, 
academia, parastatal science councils, and public utilities. 
Five members, including NACI's chairperson, represent 
prominent national universities.  We recommend inviting the 
NACI Chairperson, Professor Calie Pistorius.  We suggest 
including language in the invitation asking that, in the 
event that Prof. Pistorius is unable to participate, he 
designate one of NACI's other university representatives as 
a substitute.  In light of NACI's role and the commitment of 
its members to public service, any of the five would be 
excellent candidates for the program.  Below is background 
information on all five NACI members. 
 
5. (U) Prof. Calie Pistorius, Vice Chancellor and Principal, 
University of Pretoria, is an accomplished engineer, 
researcher and teacher.  He was appointed as Chair of NACI 
in May 2004 and held meetings with the Office of Science and 
Technology Policy, State Department (with DAS for Science 
and Health Lee Morin) and the National Academies of Science 
in July 2004 during a visit to the United States.  He holds 
a PhD and Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from 
Ohio State University and a Masters in Science in the 
Management of Technology from MIT's Sloan School of 
Management.  He also has a Bachelors of Science and a 
Bachelors of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from the 
University of Pretoria. 
 
6. (U) Prof. Cheryl de la Rey, Deputy Vice Chancellor for 
Research and Innovation, University of Cape Town (UCT), is 
the past editor of the South African Journal of Psychology 
and remains on its editorial board.  Her recent research 
focuses on leadership and higher education.  She also serves 
on the Board of Control for the NIH-funded Center for the 
AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA).  Prof. 
De la Rey has a PhD from the University of Cape Town and a 
Bachelors of Arts and Masters Degree from University of 
Natal. 
 
7. (U) Prof. Jennifer Thomson is Professor of Microbiology 
in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at UCT.  Her 
current research interest is the development of maize 
resistant to the African endemic maize streak virus and 
tolerant to drought.  She is a vocal advocate of plant 
biotechnology and helped to draft the SAG's national 
biotechnology strategy, which was published in 2001.  She is 
the interim Chair of the USAID and Rockefeller Foundation- 
supported African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) 
and a member of the board of the International Service for 
the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications (ISAAA).  Prof. 
Thomson has a Bachelors of Science in Zoology from the 
University of Cape Town, a Masters in Genetics from 
Cambridge University and a PhD in Microbiology from Rhodes 
University in South Africa. She was a post-doctoral fellow 
at Harvard Medical School and a visiting scientist at MIT. 
8. (U) Prof. Tshilidzi Marwala, Associate Professor, School 
of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of the 
Witwatersrand, in November 2004 received a Laureate Award 
from the University of Pretoria, the highest recognition 
that an outstanding achiever and alumnus can receive from 
fellow alumni of the University.  In May 2004 the National 
Science and Technology Forum recognized him as the leading 
up-and-coming black male scientist in the country. Prof. 
Marwala's research interests include the application of 
neural networks, evolutionary computing and fuzzy logic to 
information security, financial modelling, condition 
monitoring, target recognition, conflict resolution and 
HIV/AIDS.  Prof. Marwala holds a post-doctorate degree in 
Information Technology from University of London/Imperial 
College, a PhD in Computational Intelligence in Engineering 
Systems from Cambridge University, a Masters in Mechanical 
Engineering from University of Pretoria and a Bachelor of 
Science in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western 
University in the U.S. 
 
9. (U) Ms. Luci Abrahams, Director of the Learning 
Information Networking Knowledge (LINK) Centre of the School 
of Public and Development Management at the University of 
the Witwatersrand, also chairs the South Africa Reference 
Group on Women in Science and Technology.  She is convener 
of the NACI working group's study on the "Mobility of R&D 
Workers."  Her research interests include information and 
communications technology applications and related policy. 
Ms. Abrahams has a post-graduate diploma in Public and 
Development Management from the University of the 
Witwatersrand. 
 
HARTLEY