Puleng Nontobeko Biyela

Date & Place of birth    :              The 7th of January 1986 at Empangeni. I grew up at eNseleni

Study History                  :              In 2003, Biyela  obtained her  senior certificate with merit at John Ross College. In 2007, she completed her 4 year BSc Industrial degree at UNIZULU. Her highest qualification is a PhD in Physics specialising in growth of carbon nanostructures on metal oxides. She has co-published 4 papers in peer reviewed journals as the first author in this field, the journal with the highest impact factor being Carbon (8.8). She has also registered with the South African Institute of Physics as a professional Physicist.

Biyela’s post graduate studies have been supported by the NRF through the Manus/Matcsi programme allowing her to complete her Honours and Masters based at UWC and iThemba LABS, Cape Town.

She was the second female student to graduate with a PhD in Physics at UNIZULU and the first PhD student to be based in the department. After obtaining her Phd she  worked at the University of Johannesburg as a postdoctoral fellow but returned to UNIZULU to be the first postdoctoral fellow in the Physics department. Her research has been funded by the NRF and the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, which has allowed her to receive training at IOM- CNR, Italy. She is  now currently a grant holder for a SA/Sweden research collaboration and co-supervising a student with our collaborator at the Luleå University of Technology. Her latest qualification is a Post graduate diploma is Higher education from UKZN.  Currently Biyela is employed as a junior lecturer at UNIZULU, funded through the next generation of academic program. She has also developed her research interest for positron annihilation spectroscopy and astronomy. As part of her science communication passion I have co-published a newspaper article on astronomy.