Thokozani Majozi

Professor Thokozani Majozi is a South African chemical engineer whose academic career began at the University of Pretoria, where he became an associate professor in 2004 and a full professor in 2008. From 2005 to 2009, he also served as an associate professor of computer science at the University of Pannonia in Hungary. He later held several leadership roles, including serving as vice-president of the Engineering Council of South Africa from 2009 to 2012. He currently serves as President and Chairperson of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

In 2013, Majozi joined the University of the Witwatersrand as a professor and took up the South African Research Chair in Sustainable Process Engineering. He became chairperson of the CSIR Board in 2015 and, in 2021, was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at Wits. On 1 January 2026, he took up the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research & Internationalisation at the University of Cape Town.

His research focuses on batch chemical process integration, particularly the reduction of industrial wastewater. He pioneered the application of water-minimisation techniques in batch plants and is rated as a B1-level researcher by the National Research Foundation.

Majozi has received numerous honours, including multiple NSTF awards, the University of Pretoria Leading Minds Centenary Award, the S2A3 Silver Medal, and the NRF President’s Awards. In 2019, he received the Order of Mapungubwe (Bronze) for developing a novel technique enabling near-zero-effluent batch chemical facilities.

He is a member or fellow of several scientific bodies, including the Academy of Science of South Africa and the African Academy of Sciences, and he is an alumnus of the Global Young Academy.