​​​Juggling a successful music career and studying toward a master's degree in Engineering is not for the faint-hearted.But this week, Roelof van der Merwe, a member of the award-winning folk-acoustic band, Van Der Aven, proved that it could be done when he graduated with his Master's in Chemical Engineering at the Stellenbosch University (SU) April graduation.Van der Merwe is the band's guitarist and a vocalist and shares the stage with brother Theunis van der Merwe and close friend Paul Avenant. Heeding from the Karoo town, Beaufort-West, and a family with a long history at SU, Van der Merwe managed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, an SU professor and head of the Department of Psychology, and his father and three siblings – all SU alumni."I am unbelievably thankful and excited to be graduating with my Master's. It's been a long road with many late nights, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could achieve this goal. It was quite challenging to manage my time effectively between shows and studies. However, it all came down to planning and making time for what is important," said Van der Merwe.To earn this qualification, he completed research focusing on using unpurified industrial solid kelp waste as a more economical alternative source to produce soil amendments that can increase water retention and control the nutrient release rates of fertilisers and the pH within soils.   According to him, it wasn't an easy task. He struggled to find the right balance between non-academic interests and academics in his undergraduate years. "To put it mildly, I scraped through most of my undergraduate subjects. However, I was given a research topic for my final-year project that truly piqued my interest, and I received amazing feedback." The positive feedback inspired him. "I decided to continue my research and focus on completing my Master's in Process Engineering to prove that my undergraduate achievements were not a true reflection of my abilities," he said. He continued with his research in utilising industrial solid kelp waste to produce soil amendments that increase water retention and fertiliser nutrients while maintaining the pH levels in the soil. Again, he had to balance his interests, but that time within the Covid-19 lockdown. "The pandemic significantly affected us, and completing my Master's research was definitely a challenge," said Van der Merwe.Van der Merwe is positive about his future – for both his research and music interest. He will keep on living out his childhood passion and play guitar in the band that, amongst others, won the 'battle of the bands' competition (Band or Bust) at the SU Woordfees in 2019; worked with Karen Zoid and shared stages with artists such as Francois van Coke, Arno Carstens, Bottomless Coffee Band, Deon Meiring and Kaleidoskoop.  For his research, he hopes to have it commercialised one day. "The use of industrial waste to produce soil amendments shows great potential for future agricultural application, and it is also a perfect way to reuse the waste of industries to create new products," said Van der Merwe.Photographer: Stefan Els