Speakers

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Ndumiso Cingo

Dr Ndumiso Cingo is the Strategic Partnerships Manager for South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a position in which he drives and manages collaborations with organizations and institutions in the public and private sectors in South Africa and internationally. He was previously CSIR Innovation Manager, and Head of the CSIR National Laser Centre in 2009-2014, a research centre dedicated to excellence in laser research and related applications in South Africa and the African continent. He has previously held academic positions at the Tshwane University of Technology and the University of South Africa.

Dr Cingo is well-versed in policy development matters in South Africa, having served in leadership roles to develop the National Strategy for Photonics and the National Nanotechnology Strategy Implementation Plan. In this regard, he was Chair of the Photonics Initiative of South Africa and the South African Nanotechnology Initiative, which brought together the scientific communities in South Africa in photonics and nanotechnology to inform the South African government’s policy in these critical areas of the country’s research and development landscape.

On the African continental front, Dr Cingo led the development of the African Laser Centre (ALC)strategy for laser research and development in Africa through his role as Chairperson of the Board of the ALC. Furthermore, in his role as Strategic Partnerships Manager for the CSIR, he led the development of the strategy for the African Union Development Agency Centre of Excellence in Science Technology and Innovation, which is co-hosted by the CSIR. He has further served in the Executive Board of the World Association of Industrial and Technological and Research Organisations (WAITRO) as a Regional Representative for Africa, o role in which he led to the establishment of the WAITRO Special Interest Group for Africa. In the global arena, Dr Cingo has served as a member of an international steering committee which successfully lobbied the United Nations General Assembly through UNESCO to declare 2015 as the International Year of Light.

Dr Cingo holds a PhD in Chemistry from the Ohio University in the  USA.