SERA Natural Sciences Forum Co-chair and CSIR Group Executive, Khungeka Njobe.

The Co-chair of the SERA Natural Sciences Task Teams Forum, Khungeka Njobe, has been appointed as CSIR Group Executive. This follows the departure of Dr Phil Mjwara, who recently took up the position of Director-General within the national Department of Science and Technology.

Njobe joined the CSIR in 2003 as Director of CSIR Environmentek, which was reconstituted in 2005 as the CSIR Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE) where she held the position of Executive Director. CSIR NRE combines the domains of mining, forestry, pollution and waste, water, resource-based sustainable development and ecosystems.

Her management career includes being Director at the National Botanical Institute where she established a new Directorate on Biodiversity Policy and Planning as well as several other new programmes. Prior to that, she was Director of Biodiversity Management within the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Njobe also led negotiations on biodiversity as a member of South Africa's official delegation to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.

Among her qualifications are an MSc in Zoology (University of Pretoria), an Honours in Biology (University of California, Los Angeles) and a management qualification in Mastering Technology Enterprises from the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Njobe serves as Chairperson of the National Environmental Advisory Forum (NEAF) established by the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in 2005. NEAF provides the Minister with strategic advice on environmental management and governance and informs the Minister of the views of stakeholders regarding the application of the principles of the National Environmental Management Act.

Njobe was also recently appointed to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) International Advisory Board to the International Environment Technology Centre based in Japan, and is an active member of the South African Reference Group on Women in Science and Technology.

As Co-chair of the SERA Natural Sciences Task Teams Forum, alongside Prof Anton Ströh of the University of Pretoria, Njobe encouraged SERA participants to produce tangible scientific outputs and translate those into applications that benefit society.