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Seventy Years ScienceScope SCIENCESCOPE | VOLUME 8 | NUMBER 2 OF 2015 SOUTH AFRICA’S COUNCILFORSCIENTIFICANDINDUSTRIALRESEARCH SOUTH AFRICA’S OFTHECSIR|VOLUME8NUMBER2 PUBLICATION 1959 1962 1963 1965 1967 SEVENTY YEARS 1970 1979 1981 1982 1997 1999 2001 WORK IDEAS THAT 2003 2009 OF 2 IN TE 2015 RN A T I O N A L Y E A R O F L I G H 15 T CSIR UNITS > CSIR Biosciences Pretoria 012 841-3260 > CSIR Built Environment Pretoria 012 841-3871 Stellenbosch 021 888-2508 > CSIR Defence, Peace, Safety and Security Pretoria 012 841-2780 > CSIR Materials Science and Manufacturing Pretoria 012 841-4392 Cover artwork: Sizakele Shingange Johannesburg 011 482-1300 Port Elizabeth 042 508-3200 Cape Town 021 685-4329 > CSIR Meraka Institute Pretoria 012 841-3028 Cape Town (Centre for High Performance Computing) 021 658-2740 > CSIR Modelling and Digital Science Pretoria 012 841-3298 > CSIR National Laser Centre Pretoria 012 841-4188 > CSIR Natural Resources and the Environment Pretoria 012 841-4005 Stellenbosch 021 658-2766 Durban 031 242-2300 Pietermaritzburg 033 260-5446 Nelspruit 013 759-8036 > CSIR Implementation Unit Pretoria 012 841 3332 Stellenbosch 021 658 6582/2776 Cape Town 021 658 2761 Port Elizabeth 041 508 3220 Durban 031 242 2441/2300/2393 Cottesloe 011 482 1300 Kloppersbos 012 841 2247 Compiled by CSIR Strategic Communication [email protected] Photography Kaimara Shutterstock Printed on Hansol Hi Q TitanTM art paper. Manufactured from TCF (Totally Chlorine Design and production Free) and ECF (Elemental Chlorine Free) pulp. Only wood from sustainable forests Creative Vision – 082 338 3742 is used. ISO 14001 certification. Hansol Paper Co. Ltd. complies with the Chain of Custody principles as set out by the Forest Stewardship Council in all areas www.csir.co.za in which Hansol operates. THE CSIR WAS ESTABLISHED 70 YEArs AGO in 1945. While this may appear to be a venerable age, we are – in the South African context – still something of a newcomer. By comparison some of our educational institutions have been around for quite a bit longer (the University of Cape Town is 126 years old, Rhodes University is 111 and even the upstart University of the Witwatersrand has been around for 93 years) as have some of our key industrial and developmental institutions – Eskom is 93 and Transnet is 99. Therefore, we may be justified in thinking that the CSIR is but a stripling, 70 years young and only now entering into our full maturity as a national institution. As with many long-lived South African organisations, we have something of a chequered history – apartheid and the systems that supported it have cast a long shadow over the CSIR’s many scientific and technical accomplishments during its first half-century. It is perhaps emblematic of modern South Africa that we are able to reconcile this duality – that we can proudly reflect on the scientific achievements of our predecessors while recognising the fundamental injustice of the system within which those achievements took place. The last 20 years have seen a significant re-orientation of the CSIR, and while our larger aims (scientific and industrial development) remain the same, the context within which that work is conducted has changed. We now explicitly acknowledge that the ultimate aim of the CSIR is to improve the quality of life of all our people. As we celebrate 70 years of research and development, I take pride in sharing with you in this edition of ScienceScope some of our recent and ongoing research and development. Also join me in reflecting on some aspects of the CSIR journey in an article on pages 2 to 5. My hope for the future is that we will remain a society that uses science and technology for the common good. | 1 | Dr Sibusiso Sibisi, CSIR CEO The CSIR’s main site in Pretoria, during the early years following the Researchers undertaking testing of wire ropes for the mining industry, organisation being established by an Act of Parliament in 1945. a specialised service that is still being undertaken today. 70 YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH One of the few constants in the 70-year history of the CSIR is the awareness of, and commitment to, the value that science and technology can deliver to the development of our country. Aside from this, not much else has remained the same. Within the political environment, the CSIR has experienced the upheavals associated with changes in administrations and policies, and of course the rather more significant changes that occurred when South Africa transitioned from an Apartheid to a democratic state. SCIENtiFIC DISCIPLINES research is an effective way to and Industrial Research three Acting Prime Minister Hofmeyer have grown, withered and been ensure the well-being of current years later. He discussed his intent was quoted as saying, “A nation replaced by new areas of research, and future generations. to establish a scientific research which neglects research is at the and the associated technologies institute to support industry with same time impairing its prospects have developed at a breathtaking 70 years ago Dr Basil Schonland (later Sir Basil) of material welfare and weakening rate. Internally we have seen who was at the time working The world was a different place its status and dignity among the our infrastructure built and then on radar technology. The CSIR in 1945 with governments civilised nations of the world.” was modelled on international re-built from modest beginnings, and industry reforming and organisations, including the On 5 October 1945, the CSIR was our administrative structures transforming the postwar Australian and Canadian legally constituted and work to have been designed and then landscape. It is from the embers examples of science councils. refine its scope and structure re-designed, and the people of World War II that the CSIR was Schonland believed that the right followed immediately. Holding who make up the core of this established, although it had been environment, such as the scenic the view that industries should organisation have joined, grown, in the minds of some visionaries garden settings found in Britain, be responsible for funding and departed. years before. One such example would provide the necessary technological research, but is Dr HJ van der Bijl, head of the There will certainly be many creative atmosphere in which realising that an uphill battle lay South African Advisory Board more such changes over the researchers could flourish. Today, ahead to instil such an imperative, for Industry and Science in 1916, next 70 years, and no doubt our this sentiment still ranks high on and that it should therefore start who argued that a government- successors in this organisation CSIR employees’ top reasons for off with focusing on research that funded central research institute | 2 | will adapt as necessary. No matter enjoying their work, as the main would typically be neglected by was necessary. what these changes are, we can campus perfectly amalgamates industry, the CSIR established be sure that the organisation will In 1942, the Prime Minister of world-class scientific research the National Physical Laboratory, remain true to the idea that binds South Africa, Jan Smuts, set the infrastructure and natural beauty. the National Chemical Research us all together – that investing wheels in motion for what would The legislative process to establish Laboratory and the National in scientific and technological become the Council for Scientific the CSIR followed, during which Building Research Institute. One of the newest buildings on site, the CSIR Knowledge Commons. CSIR biotechnologist Zandile Nxumalo using modern equipment to develop digital pathology technology to train experts remotely. Five years later these were some extent decades later with The CSIR’s collaboration with policy in the mid-1980s while joined by two national institutes the Department of Arts, Culture, the French national centre for at the same time transforming focusing on telecommunications Science and Technology and space studies, CNES and the its research and development and personnel research then, in 2002, the Department of American space agency, NASA, focus – a necessity that received (industrial psychology), as well Science and Technology. in tracking satellites raised its further impetus from the Kleu as industrial research institutes profile internationally and very Report, an investigation ordered for the leather, fishing, paint, In 1950, Schonland was soon the Hartebeesthoek tracking in 1977 that underscored the and sugar milling industries. succeeded by Dr PJ du Toit who station – which later became the need for practical research presided for two years and CSIR Satellite Applications Centre that would be relevant to the Nearly 160 applied research formed the SA Wool Textile and which moved from the CSIR country’s economy, and that projects were undertaken for Research Institute and the to form part of the South African placed the spotlight on the industry and other funders in Bituminous Binder Research National Space Agency in 2010 transfer of technology. the first five years of the CSIR’s Unit. – was one of the busiest in the existence. Research programmes world. included areas such as coal Dr Stefan Meiring Naudé was Technology transfer tar and bituminous materials, the third CSIR President and In Brink’s tenure, the CSIR emphasised water treatment, low-cost and a prominent physicist. During International Convention Centre The White Paper promulgated high-density housing, and the his presidency of nearly two opened its doors and it remains as a result of the Kleu Report, use of plant and animal products decades, the staff complement one of the premier, award-winning stipulated that the CSIR had a for industrial use. Scientific grew from 685 to more than conference centres in the country. vital role to play in technology and technical cooperation in 4 000 and additional research transfer.
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