UKZN opens high-tech laboratory on Westville Campus

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August 2018 News

The University of KwaZulu-Natal recently celebrated the opening of a high-tech laboratory on its Westville campus. The university has invested over R9 million into the Pulsed Laser Deposition Thin Films Laboratory, which was officially opened by vice-chancellor Dr Albert van Jaarsveld, with guest speaker Barlow Manilal, CEO of the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), in attendance.

Dr. Albert van Jaarsveld (Vice Chancellor of UKZN); Mr Barlow Manilal (CEO: Technology Innovation Agency); Dr. Mathew Moodley (Physics, UKZN).

“Our institution, as well as the School of Chemistry and Physics (SCO), are transforming to reposition themselves to become more integrated with their communities,” said Professor Ross Robinson, Dean and Head of the SCP.

Manilal’s presentation emphasised that academia should assist with the recalibration of society, saying that innovation builds a nation through skills development and enables long-term planning, leading to increased resolve and lessons in scale and pace. Manilal said that UKZN is moving in the right direction to play a role in socioeconomic development in South Africa and that the TIA is encouraging facilities aligned to national priorities, as well as facilities enabling more close interaction between universities and the private sector. He noted that these facilities announce the value proposition of the university to industry.

Van Jaarsveld thanked guests for their attendance and work with UKZN and gave an overview of the university’s new strategic plan and research flagships, saying that facilities like these will service all of UKZN’s research flagships, and form a foundation for promoting innovation and entrepreneurship.

The laboratory, with its newly acquired state-of-the-art Pulsed Laser Deposition System, will house the only instrument of this kind in the southern hemisphere. The instrument is capable of coating atomically thin layers of most solid materials onto substrates up to 50 mm in diameter. Thin films and multi-layered thin films play a crucial role in most modern functional devices such as computer chips, hard-drives, solar cells, superconducting materials, ultra-hard coatings, hi-tech sensors and optical coatings.

The advanced system in the laboratory will take researchers on a new path of materials discovery, and increase throughput in materials research and make UKZN more competitive in developing new devices.

Pioneering researcher Dr Mathew Moodley will oversee the new facility. He is known for his development of a conversion electron Mossbauer Spectroscopy detector, the synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes, as well as for several notable military and mining safety applications.

For more information contact Dr Mathew Moodley, University of KwaZulu-Natal, +27 31 260 7229, [email protected]

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UKZN opens high-tech laboratory on Westville Campus

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