A bright young star

4th Quarter 2011 News & events

A young man from the Eastern Cape by the name of Siyabulela Xuza is one of our country’s brightest talents. Former Anglo American chairman Clem Sunter describes him as one of the South Africans who are making a difference by achieving extraordinary things, and his list of achievements is outstanding.

He is passionate about rockets and while still at school won two top awards at the 58th Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. These were for his development of a rocket fuel that was safer, cheaper and more effective than that used by NASA. He then built a rocket that broke South Africa’s amateur high altitude record by launching it 800 metres into the air.

In recognition of his talent, Nasa’s Lincoln Laboratory named a minor planet after him. Planet 23182, discovered in 2000, is now known as Siyaxuza and is found in the main asteroid belt near Jupiter.

Now an energy engineering student at Harvard University, his passion is for harnessing the power of the sun for clean affordable energy. He conducts research geared towards making cheaper solar cells and assesses the commercial viability of solar technologies. The main thrust of his work is in nano-enabled solar energy.

For further news about Siya visit http://tinyurl.com/3e4pm45. His biography can be found at http://motioncontrol.co.za/+brightstar

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