Research

Black industrialist and founding CEO of Capebio to deliver keynote address at Innovation Festival

Share

Innovation-Festival-2024-header.jpg

This year's Innovation Festival, which will take place from 25 to 29 November 2024 at the Muckleneuk and Science Campuses, will be a week-long exploration of Unisa’s latest innovations and trends. It is an opportunity to engage in discussions about broad innovation trends, research and collaboration, and to foster partnerships within the innovation ecosystem.  

Under the theme "Innovations for Societal Impact", the festival features keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops and networking opportunities led by thought leaders from academia, government, non-governmental organisations, funding agencies, social enterprises and the private sector.

Daniel-Ndima.jpg

Mr Daniel Ndima, founding CEO of Capebio

A programme highlight on Thursday 28 November 2024, is a talk by Mr Daniel Ndima, founding CEO of Capebio, who strongly advocates for scientific innovation that creates jobs, improves the quality of ordinary lives, and contributes to social development and the economy.  

Daniel is a structural biologist of infectious diseases with a new dissertation on genome editing innovations. He is an Allan Gray Fellow, Mandela Rhodes Scholar, Brightest Young Minds Alumnus, Mail & Guardian Top 200 South African in Science and Technology, and one of the African Influencers for Change (by UNDP Africa). He serves as a Council Member at South Africa’s National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), under the National Department of Technology and Innovation (DSTI).  

Daniel is one of South Africa’s recognised Black Industrialists, and his company, Capebio, won the Presidential Black Industrialist Award in the Innovation and Technology Category in 2022. He also won the Top African Biotech Entrepreneur Award at the BIO Africa Convention in 2022. In 2023, he won the All Africa Innovator of the Year Award at the All-Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA) Ceremony. Capebio was also recognised for its highly commendable artificial intelligence (AI) technology by Sentech at the Africa TechWeek Awards. The AI platform enables robust development of the biomanufacturing processes for diagnostic reagents and will soon be launched in the market for novel biomolecule discovery research and innovation capabilities.

The keynote address will take place at 09:50 on Thursday 28 November 2024 in the Thamsanqa Kambule Auditorium, Unisa Science Campus. 

This event is open to the innovation community, including researchers, academics, investors, entrepreneurs, and Unisa’s staff and students. Registration is free, but space is limited. Be sure to register early to ensure your participation. Click here for the programme and to register.  

For more information, please contact Ms Matshego Njumbuxa (enjumbnm@unisa.ac.za; 083 290 5147). 5147

* Submitted by the Department of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation

Share

Publish date: 2024/11/21

Unisa Shop