Recent Engineering Breakthroughs from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa

Tshilidzi Marwala in the electrical engineering lab at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa

Due to the efficacy and precision of heart disease diagnoses in recent years, worldwide death rates from cardiovascular-related problems have decrease four-fold. This medical success can be attributed to nuclear radiation imaging, invented and patented in 1998 by Tshilidzi Marwala, a South African engineer. Marwala was born in 1971 in Venda, Transvaal, South Africa. In his early career, he worked at the University of Witwatersrand, where he developed his apparatus for nuclear radiation imaging, wherein a small amount of radioactive compound is injected into the patient's bloodstream. As it travels through the body it emits gamma rays which are detected as flashes of light. This technique is used commonly now to diagnose heart disease, bone deficiency, and brain tumors. In 2004, Marwala became the youngest recipient of the Order of Mapungubwe, South Africa's highest honor, for his engineering in the benefit of society.
Now, Marwala works at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, where he leads a team of other professors and graduate students appointed by the South Africa Minister of Communications, working to unbundle fixed telecommunication networks. This work is leading to groundbreaking methods of telecommunications engineering that will impact networks elsewhere. This work vividly displays how unique research from South African institutions is impacting the state of various fields of science (medicine and communications, in Marwala's case) throughout the world.

Sources:
http://www.uj.ac.za/
http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=gennuclear

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