In celebrating its 70th year of research, development and innovation, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (the CSIR) has put together an informative and enriching programme for its 5th biennial conference.

The 5th CSIR Conference from 8 to 9 October at its International Convention Centre in Pretoria will feature a host of both local and international experts in the fields of energy, the natural environment, information and communications technology, health, industry, defence and security and the built environment, who will be discussing exciting and expected future technological developments and pertinent global research issues.

The conference will take an incisive look at questions such as: what will future sustainable energy systems actually look like. What is needed to be able to truly eradicate malaria. What are the big data challenges on the African continent. What are the financial benefits of renewable energy. How is technology aiding in the fight against poaching? And how can we measure the contribution of nature to the economy. These are some of the enticing questions that will be discussed by world-renowned local and international experts who will each be presenting talks at the conference.

The speakers at this year's conference are local and international thought leaders and experts who will share knowledge and expertise with conference delegates.

One of the main attractions will be a talk by Dr Michael Thackeray, one of the revered 'fathers' of the kind of spinel oxide lithium-ion batteries that have become synonymous with modern life, powering all manner of portable electronic devices like smartphones and tablets.

Thackeray is a Distinguished Fellow and senior scientist in the Electrochemical Energy Storage Department in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering division at Argonne National Laboratory in the US. He received his PhD from the University of Cape Town, South Africa in 1977 and studied as a post-doctoral Fellow at Oxford University in the early 1980s. He returned to South Africa to head the battery department at the CSIR before moving to Argonne in 1994. Between 2009 and 2014 he served as the Director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Frontier Research Center: The Center for Electrical Energy Storage in a partnership between Argonne, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His talk will focus on the global impact of energy storage research.

Another highlight will be a talk by Prof Lynn Morris, a chief specialist scientist who heads the HIV virology laboratories within the centre of HIV and sexually transmitted infections at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Johannesburg and holds a joint appointment as Research Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand.

For the past 22 years, Morris has been involved in researching the virological and immunological aspects of South African HIV-1 subtype C infection making significant contributions to our understanding of how the antibody response to HIV develops. Her talk will focus on the intensive local efforts to develop a preventive HIV vaccine, which have been bolstered by the discovery of broad and potent neutralising antibodies in HIV-infected humans.

Another anticipated talk is that of Dr Pushpam Kumar, Chief of the Ecosystem Services and Economics Unit of the Division of Environment Programme Implementation of the United Nations Environmental Programme. Kumar, who works on the mainstreaming of ecosystem services into development policy through the tools and techniques of ecological economics, will lead a discussion on how it is possible to measure the contribution of nature on world economies and on how global and national policies do not adequately recognise the dependence of economies on nature.

The conference will also showcase the CSIR's own research progress, breakthroughs and impacts.

A talk on the financial benefits of South Africa's renewable energy projects by Dr Tobias Bischof-Niemz promises to be informative, while Dr Dalu Mancama will be sharing the CSIR's work on the screening of synthetic compounds to help identify a new generation of drugs that will hopefully be able to permanently disrupt the life-cycle of the malaria parasite.

Also on the conference agenda is a discussion on the creation of vastly enhanced plastics thanks to nanoclay minerals, by Prof Suprakas Sinha Ray. Mr Priaash Ramadeen will be discussing how technology is being used in the fight against poaching while Dr Francois Engelbrecht will outline the progress made towards the development of the first African-based earth system model for accurate climate change projections.

For the full conference programme and biographies and talk summaries of all the speakers, visit the CSIR 2015 Conference website at http://conference.csir.co.za.

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About the CSIR

The CSIR is one of the leading scientific and technology research, development and implementation organisations in Africa. Constituted by an Act of Parliament in 1945 as a science council, the CSIR undertakes directed and multidisciplinary research, technological innovation as well as industrial and scientific development to improve the quality of life of the country's people. For more info visit www.csir.co.za

For more information, please contact:
Tendani Tsedu
CSIR Media relations manager
Tel: +2712 841 3417
Cell: +27 82 945 1980
Email: mtsedu@csir.co.za