M Mangena: International Conference on Co-ordination Chemistry

13 August 2006

Chairman of the Organising Committee, Professor Koch
Professor A P de Silva from Queens College
Vice Chancellors
International delegates
Representatives from various bodies
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

South Africa is indeed very honoured to host this important and prestigious
international conference. May I also add my words of welcome to all the
delegates, especially our guests from other countries? I hope those of you who
have travelled from far away are well rested and able to enjoy something of
Cape Town in between the events of the conference.

Recently a renowned chemist said the following:

Catalysts are the conductors who choreograph the chemical dance that results
in the formation of new structures. Just as the influence of catalysts occurs,
in a sense, behind the scenes of a chemical reaction, catalysis has been behind
three of the last six chemistry prizes. Catalysts offer the promise of making
chemical transformations far less polluting. We hope that the recognition of
our chemistry provides a drive for the development of new green methods for the
synthesis of essential chemicals.

And that renowned chemist is with us here today. Welcome Professor Robert
Grubbs. It is indeed a pleasure to have you here in South Africa. I found your
remarks in that speech very challenging and compelling.

South Africa’s economy was built on agriculture and mining, and to a
significant extent, it still depends on these economic activities. But we have
one industry that has some distinctiveness and uniqueness based on catalysis
that is the oil-from-coal industry known globally as SASOL.

SASOL is the largest business investor in research and development in South
Africa, and is certainly the largest employer of our chemists and chemical
engineers. It is widely acknowledged for taking a proactive approach to
research. In a way, this makes it a “conductor and choreographer” of much that
happens in our system of innovation. Some people have called it the Nokia of
South Africa, but my policy analysts tell me that its research budget would
have to increase by a factor of five for this to be true.

Evidence abound that South Africa has been undergoing a renaissance in
science and technology over the last few years. Last year President Mbeki
opened the 10 metre class Southern African Large Telescope in Sutherland in the
Northern Cape some two hours drive from here once you have cleared Cape Town’s
traffic. This telescope was built by a South African anchored international
partnership on the design based on the highly innovative Hobby telescope in
Texas.

This venture in the optical spectrum is likely to be dwarfed by South
Africa’s bid to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Radio Telescope which may
have as many as 4 500, 12 to 15 metre dishes when it is completed in 2020. Not
far from here, in the suburb of Pinelands, a team of some 35 scientists and
engineers are developing the prototype 20 dish Karoo Array Telescope that will
be used to stimulate the innovation required to make the dream of the SKA a
practical reality. In this case South Africa is not borrowing the core
technologies. Our technology is the reference technology for the current SKA
bidding processes.

South Africa sees astronomy as an opportunity for forging cutting edge
research and world-class innovation together with our international partners.
In the same way, we are mobilising our unique biodiversity to develop research
and innovation in the biosciences and biotechnology, with a number of early
successes coming from these investments.

In the field of chemistry there is a medium-sized company in Krugersdorp,
near Johannesburg, which is a global exporter of zirconium chemicals. This
would probably be unremarkable if it had not been a project of the
government-backed Innovation Fund, which is now supported by, among others, a
Swedish venture capital firm. We are making strides in science, technology and
innovation, but we cannot suggest that we have achieved our objectives yet.

In the intersection between “molecules” and the “world of nanostructures”,
we do not have an established track record of academic endeavour or significant
industrial capabilities other than those that existed before the world took on
a more integrated approach to a nano-future. We have only recently completed
the national nanotechnology strategy, and have begun to invest in the core
infrastructure and equipment that will underpin better science and targeted
research areas in this field.

In Mowbray, not too far from here, we are establishing the High Performance
Computing Centre, which will house the next generation of grid computing and
supercomputers for our South African scientific community. We already have
established competencies in this domain, but until now, our scientists have had
to depend on the goodwill of colleagues in Europe and the United States. The
project was given strong impetus by, among others, Kevin Naidoo, a
computational chemist from the University of Cape Town. The group there works
on liquid systems such as oligosaccharides in water, which sounds a little like
“sugar water” to some of us non-specialists!

Given the fact that our daily lives revolve around the use of chemical
products from the basic needs of life like water (H2O), to the most
sophisticated gadgets or medicines, it is critical that we provide the
necessary toolkits for our research community to work at the forefront of
modern research.

This underpins our investment strategy. But as much as we focus on the
physical universe, beyond the earth, we must pay attention to the hidden
dimensions and unique character of our existence as biological beings. It is
not enough to call this century the century of biology and then sit back. The
revolution in biology is proving to be just as demanding as that of physics in
the last century.

Chemistry retains its enigmatic relationship with both physics and the
biosciences. Although DNA has been called the molecule of life, life-giving
molecules are more often found in the generations of pharmaceuticals developed
in laboratories across the world. The gains in this regard have been of
inestimable value to both the developed and developing world. And yet, for all
this success, we still face enormous challenges in delivering basic public
health support to the majority of the inhabitants of the planet.

We are seeing, for the first time in five generations, a reduction in public
literacy in relation to the sciences, but public scepticism and public fears
are increasing. This change in public perceptions is influencing the career
choices of young people. Undergraduate enrolments are continuing to decline in
many science fields. Somehow the special story of chemistry in our lives is not
being told. The interesting and challenging linkages between chemistry and
other fields of science such as nanotechnology, bio-technology, computing and
materials engineering should be far more accessible and visible to young people
before they “lock-in” on their career choices.

The chemical industry contributes five percent to South Africa’s Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) about the same as agriculture, and less than half that
of Information Communication Technology (ICT). South Africa pays more for
chemical-based imports than it exports. This is because the exports are
principally low unit value commodity chemicals, whereas imports are higher
value, fine and speciality chemicals. This reality should help focus our
efforts to a higher degree. In addition, the burden of disease, including
tuberculosis, malaria, cancer and HIV/AIDS, should also be a key focus of our
investment and output in research and innovation.

Professor Grubbs indicated that chemistry must seek a future that is
“greener”. This is one of the key challenges we face. In energy terms, this
includes the journey from carbon-to-hydrogen, which is one of the key frontiers
we have prioritised. And is still a challenge for high temperature processes to
split water into hydrogen and oxygen one of the many frontiers seeking
practical and useful solutions the heart of good chemistry.

I hope that your conference will constitute a high point for you in the
complex “choreography” of the global chemical community. I hope you absorb some
African rhythms, and feel free to take some steps not envisaged before, in new
partnerships that will allow a new generation of scientists to build on your
work. Enjoy the exercise.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
13 August 2006
Source: Department of Science and Technology (http://www.dst.gov.za)