Dr Nomampondomise (Mpondi) Molefe is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at Rhodes University. She holds over 15 years of academic experience spanning teaching, research, supervision, and academic leadership, including previous service at the University of the Free State.

Her teaching spans undergraduate to doctoral levels, with a strong commitment to inclusive, decolonial, and research-led chemistry education, with primary contributions in inorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, and liquid crystals. She has supervised numerous Honours and MSc students to completion and currently supervises doctoral and post-doctoral research.

Dr. Molefe’s work integrates scientific excellence with transformation, mentorship, and curriculum innovation, particularly in advancing equity and diversity in STEM education. She is an active member of the South African Chemical Institute and the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Research Interests

Dr Molefe’s research is positioned within inorganic and materials chemistry, with particular emphasis on:

1. Liquid Crystalline Materials and Functional Soft Matter
Design and development of nanostructured bio-based liquid crystalline semiconducting composites.

2. Molecular Solar Thermal (MOST) Energy Systems
Development of photoswitchable molecules (including azobenzene and norbornadiene derivatives) for solar energy harvesting and storage.

3. Coordination and Organometallic Chemistry
Synthesis, electrochemical behaviour, and structural characterization of transition metal complexes.

4. Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms and Catalysis

Her research integrates fundamental chemistry with renewable energy innovation and materials design relevant to global sustainability challenges.

About:

Dr Tshiwawa is a physical/computational chemist with special interest in ethnochemistry. She obtained her PhD in Chemistry at Rhodes University in 2019 and was appointed to a lecturer position in 2020.

ORCID: 0000-0002-2747-1406

About:

1. Synthetic Methodology:
   Applications of the Baylis-Hillman reaction in the synthesis of benzanulated heterocyclic systems and their elaboration to biologically active compounds.
2. Medicinal Chemistry:
   Design, synthesis and in silico and in vitro evaluation of the medicinal potential of novel compounds as anti-parasitic (anti-malarial and anti-trypanosomal), HIV-1 PR, IN and RT inhibitors and anti-TB agents.
3. Physical Organic Chemistry:
   Kinetic-mechanistic studies of organic reaction mechanisms using spectroscopic and computational methods.

About:

As a physical inorganic chemist, my areas of interest are molecular spectroscopy, coordination chemistry and bioinorganic chemistry, applied to areas such as nanotechnology, medicinal and industrial uses. The group works with nmr, infrared and Raman spectroscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, XRD(P), thermal analysis (TG, DSC and TG-FTIR) BET and molecular modelling. 

About:

Lecturer (Physical Organic Chemistry)

Prof Lobb spent two years as NMR specialist before being appointed as a Lecturer in the department. He teaches NMR and computational chemistry at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. As a core member of RUBi [https://rubi.ru.ac.za/] he also teaches computational chemistry within the context of the coursework bioinformatics MSc programme. He has supervised and co-supervised 30 MSc and PhD students and has published some 42 papers.

His interests include reaction kinetics and the determination of organic reaction mechanisms (with particular emphasis on carbocations and carbocation rearrangements), and aspects of cheminformatics such as virtual chemical library generation and high throughput virtual screening in the context of drug discovery.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3023-0790

About:

Educating young people and seeing them become the best scientists (and people) they can be is my passion. I am a chemist by training and am now involved in research in drug development (mainly organic synthesis) and in lecturing at several levels within the University structure.

About:

As a lecturer, I assist students in their Chemistry studies. I manage and lecture the Chemistry 1Remedial course and run augmentation tutorials for first years who are struggling or who would like to improve their marks.

In addition to teaching first years, I also teach two modules at the Honours level: Chemometrics and a Service-learning module. For the S-L module, students are expected to present ‘A Pollutant’s Tale’ and two hands-on experiments to grade 7 learners at two schools in and around Makhanda.

My academic interests are in the field of Chemical Education and Community Engagement. A lot of my time is spent on Community Engagement: Khanya Maths and Science Club, workshops for Science teachers and workshops for school groups who visit the Department.

About:

Doctor Songeziwe Ntsimango obtained his PhD in 2021 in the area of synthetic organic chemistry at the University of the Witwatersrand. He has 10 years of experience as a synthetic organic chemist working in the area of the synthesis of aromatic and heteroaromatic compounds. He worked as a Lecturer at Wits before joining Rhodes as a Senior Lecturer in 2026.

Currently, Dr Ntsimango’s research interests lie in the areas of Synthetic Organic and Green and Sustainable chemistry. In the latter, the focus lies in the development of strategies and tactics, and their application in the synthesis of polycyclic N-heterocyclic compounds from acyclic biorenewable resources, often derived from lignocellulose.

In the area of synthetic organic chemistry, he is investigating the reactions of small carbocyclic ring systems as potential intermediates in the synthesis of polysubstituted benzoid moieties. In addition, the use of these small carbocylic in the synthesis of benzene bioisosteres is also pursued.

About:

 I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department.

My research focuses on coordination chemistry, crystallography, and the reaction mechanisms of transition and platinum group metal complexes, with applications in nuclear medicine and catalysis.

I combine synthetic chemistry, kinetic studies, and X-ray crystallography to investigate metal–ligand interactions and develop functional materials.

About:

 I am a systems driven experimental chemist, focussing on the integration of various areas of science instead of compartmentalizing them – which is reflected by my broad areas of interest.

About:

I work with Chemistry 1 students to help them get a better handle of concepts in Chemistry and facilitate progress in their studies.

My research interests are in Medicinal Organic Chemistry where we design and synthesise natural product-inspired compounds as drug agents. These compounds are evaluated for their anti-parasitic and anti-bacterial activities.

About:

Monde Brain Mafani a father of 4 – 2 girls and 2 boys, a husband to Nondumiso Nazo Mafani, a Seventh Day Christian.

Born in Uitenhage/KwaNobuhle township in 1978 with 5 siblings, his father died when Monde was still young and he grew up with his mother who died in 2024.

Monde studied high school at Thanduxolo SS School in kwaNobuhle and went to Border Technikon in East London to study ND Analytical Chemistry, then started working at BASAF as a lab technician from 2002 until 2005. He worked at Aspen Pharmacare as an Analytical Chemistry from 2005 until 2015.

He runs an NGO called Way To Go Science and Technology helping school from disadvantage background in uplifting their chemical laboratory standards and to help scholar with laboratory experiments,

He currently works at Rhodes University as a Senior Technical Officer and volunteers as a SHE rep.

About:

Mrs Tarr has day-to-day oversight of administrative support for the Department of Chemistry.  This includes support for the HOD and Academic staff, maintaining accurate research and departmental policies.