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Professor Priscilla Baker was appointed as … Professor Priscilla Baker was appointed as the first female permanent staff member in the Chemistry department (UWC, 2003) and was promoted to full Professor in Chemistry in 2012. Baker served the Chemistry department as Deputy Chairperson since 2011 and is currently the Head of Department. She has been the Chemistry Honours Programme Co-ordinator since 2014 and has grown the Honours intake from 10 (2014) to an average of 25 students per year (2015-2017). Baker was elected Chairperson of the Electrochemistry Division of SACI (ElectrochemSA, 2007-) and has hosted three international Symposia on Electrochemistry. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of the SACI official journal i.e. The South African Journal of Chemistry, which celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2018.
She has served the international electrochemistry community as Deputy Chairperson of Electroanalytical Chemistry division of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) from 2013 to 2016 and in January 2016 Baker was elected ISE Regional Representative for South Africa. The ISE Annual meeting, which draws on average 1200 participants from around the globe, will be in its 70th year running in 2019 and this prestigious international conference on Electrochemistry, will be hosted in South Africa under her leadership. Prof Baker has served as External Examiner of national and international MSc and PhD theses as well as Journal Reviewer for many prestigious publications including Analytica Chimica Acta, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Biosensors Bioelectronics, Talanta, Electrochimica Acta and others. She served on the editorial board as Guest Editor for (1) Electrochimica Acta special issue “Sensors and Sensor Technology”, 55 (14), 30 May 2010 ; (2) Analytical Letters, 44 (11) June 2011 and (3) Journal of Nano Research 40, 2016.
Since 2005- 2011 Baker was grant holder for Bilateral Research Grants with key partners at Bangor University, Wales (UK), Coimbra University (Portugal), State University of New York, Binghamton (USA) and Neubrandenburg University (Germany). More recently Baker has participated in two FP7 European Commission consortia, specifically the European Scientific Network for Artificial Muscles (ESNAM) and the Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES). Continued collaboration with a partner university on the ESNAM network (University Cergy Pontoise (UCP), France) has produced many tangible outputs. A very pivotal review paper in the field of electrochemical actuators was co-authored and published in Mini Reviews in Organic Chemistry (2015). Baker was appointed Visiting Professor at University Cergy Pontoise (2013-2017) where she continues to teach a course on electrochemical polymers to the CMI Master students, each year. She currently co-supervises a joint PhD co-tutelle with University Cergy Pontoise (XT Ngema, South African PhD) – a degree that will be jointly awarded and will recognise UWC and UCP as equal partners in training, according to an official MOU. Additionally, the strong collaboration with UCP has provided research exchange opportunities for French MSc students (2016 and 2017) as well as South African postgraduate students (2013, 2015 and 2017). Baker was also the UWC research manager on the Marie Curie people mobility grant (IRSES, Smartcancersens) involving 10 participating countries including Tunisia, Egypt, Romania, Ireland, France, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Ukraine and South Africa. Baker has supervised 20+ Honours, 20 MSc, and 29 doctoral researchers as well as several post-doctoral fellows. Her graduates hold leadership positions at South African Police Services (Forensics), CSIR, Mintek, WITS University, Namibia University of Technology, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, City of Cape Town and academic and advisory positions at academic and government institutions throughout Africa. Baker was announced Winner of the Department of Science and Technology, Distinguished Woman Scientist award in the category Physical and Engineering Sciences (2014) and in the same year she was awarded the Deputy Vice Chancellor’s Young Researcher Award, by the University of the Western Cape. Her research profile has been featured in Mail&Guardian and the woman’s magazine “KUIER".Guardian and the woman’s magazine “KUIER".
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