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Prof Masesane to be Confirmed Commonwealth Chemistry Board Member

Prof MasesaneUniversity of Botswana Head of the Department of Chemistry, Professor Ishmael Masesane, is just about to be confirmed as an inaugural board member of the Commonwealth Chemistry, the Federation of Commonwealth Chemical Societies. Professor Masesane will be confirmed during the inaugural Commonwealth Chemistry Congress (CCC) taking place online on May 18-20, 2021.

The Congress will have a strong focus on early career chemists across the Commonwealth, with the aim of furthering their career development, enabling joint research and education activities, and providing networking opportunities to share research outputs. Representatives from chemical societies across the Commonwealth will join high level stakeholders from academia, industry and government at this meeting.

As a uniquely diverse group of nations with shared values and a powerful voice, the Commonwealth is home to 12 per cent of the world’s researchers and accounts for around 10 per cent of global research and development expenditure.

Consequently, bringing together chemists from across the Commonwealth under the banner of equality for all, the Congress will promote the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), strengthen scientific capacity, inspire and elevate the role of the chemical sciences to society and policy makers, and celebrate achievements in chemistry.

Meanwhile, Professor Masesane is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, having been admitted in 2019. This means he is allowed to use the designation FRSC after his name. The FRSC designation is given to individuals who have made major contributions to chemistry and interface disciplines such as biological chemistry. 

Professor Masesane hold a PhD in Organic synthesis, University of Durham, UK, 2003; MSc Natural Products Chemistry, University of Botswana, 1998; BSc Chemistry and biology, University of Botswana, 1996. He is also President of the Botswana Academy of Science. His teaching areas are in Organic Chemistry, General Chemistry and Natural Products Chemistry while in research he focuses on Organic Synthesis, Natural Products Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry.

In pursuit of academic excellence