Biography
Prof. Rodney Genga
Chair and co-founder
Associate Prof. Rodney Genga is the Director of the Engineering and Built Environment Academic Development Unit, and Principal Researcher at the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is guest scientist at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Germany and a visiting Materials research Engineer position at the Research Center for Manufacturing Technology (RCMT), Czech University of Technology, Czech Republic. He is an executive member of the Microscopy Society of Southern Africa (MSSA) and a member of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials. Chairman and co-founder of African Inclusive Microscopy network (AfInMic) and Chair of the MSSA 2022 conference local organising committee – 57th chapter.
Rodney Genga holds undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nairobi, (Kenya), and a PhD in Metallurgy and Material Science Engineering (MSc was upgraded to a PhD). His PhD was based on design, synthesis, physical, microstructure, mechanical and behaviour testing of advanced WC cermets, for improved Aerospace grade Titanium machining.
His current research interest includes development of novel cermets for manufacturing in automotive, aerospace, and structural application industries, green machining, use of advanced ADF-Scanning Transition Electron Microscopy (STEM) for tribological analysis, cermet Laser (nano and pico) surface enhancement, 3D printing cermet manufacturing. His research interests also include capacity building in Africa via skills development training in innovation, manufacturing and microscopy.
Rodney has extensive experience in the field of microscopy and is conversant with below techniques:
- Light microscopy (LM),
- Scanning electron microscopy (SEM),
- Laser confocal microscopy (LCM),
- Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and
- Atomic force microscopy (AFM)
He has received several research awards including the prestigious Wits University “Prof S. Luyckx Postgraduate Prize”, for the postgraduate student who has made an outstanding contribution to the fields of hard metals or powder metallurgy (2014), University of the Witwatersrand First Time Inventor Award (2016) and two (2) Microscopy Society of Southern Africa (MSSA) most exceptional presentation awards (in 2014 and 2019).
Rodney Genga is passionate about capacity building in the African continent to solve African problems, and one way is through human capital development in microscopy for life and material sciences. Microscopy has critically contributed to the local relevance and international competitiveness of his research output. This is part of what drives his commitment to exposing, creating access, and upskilling of current and future African scientists in all fields of microscopy with the aim of solving local challenges.