Science behind the 2025 Nobel Prizes
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It is time again for the annual "Science behind the 2025 Nobel Prizes" when scientists from our Departments of Physics, Physiological Sciences, and Chemistry and Polymer Science give public lectures on the 2025 winners.
For this year, our speakers are:
Prof Frikkie Scholtz, Department of Physics
On the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit"
Prof Anna-Mart Engelbrecht, Department of Physiological Sciences
On the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Frederick J. Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi "for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance"
Prof Delia Haynes, Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science
On the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi "for the development of metal–organic frameworks"
About the speakers
Prof Frikkie Scholtz
Frikkie Scholtz is currently a professor in the Department of Physics at Stellenbosch University, and up until 2025 served as the Vice-Dean for research of the Faculty of Science. Frikkie was instrumental in the establishment of the National Institute of Theoretical Physics (NITheP), which was the precursor to the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS), currently hosted at Stellenbosch University, and served as the Director of NITheP for most of its existence. Frikkie has received numerous honours during his career, amongst others being awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship.
Prof Anna-Mart Engelbrecht
Anna-Mart Engelbrecht is currently a professor in the Department of Physiological Sciences at Stellenbosch University. She received several prestigious awards which include the Dean’s and Senate’s Medals as well as the Gencor Bronze Medal from the University of the Free State, the Marie Curie Scholarship of the European Union, the Rector’s award for Excellence in Research and the Vice-Rector’s Research Award for exceptional achievement from Stellenbosch University as well as the Lasec Award for Excellence in Physiology Research from the Physiological Society of Southern Africa (PSSA). She is the director of two University start-up companies, Biocode and Phyenti, and serves on the Governing Boards of The African Cancer Institute (ACI) and the Institute for Biomedical Engineering
Prof Delia Haynes
Delia Haynes is currently a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science at Stellenbsoch Unversity. After completing her PhD in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Cambridge in the UK, she stayed on as a postdoctoral associate with the Pfizer Institute for Pharmaceutical Materials Science. In 2006, she returned to South Africa as a lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, joining Stellenbosch University in 2007. Delia was a Fulbright scholar at the University of California, Berkeley in 2010, and was the 2015 recipient of the Jan Boeyens medal. She was recently elected the first president of the African Crystallographic Association. She is a member of the CrystEngComm and NJC Advisory Boards, and a fellow of the South African Chemical Institute, the Royal Society of South Africa and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Her research focuses on crystal engineering with multi-component crystals.