A/Prof Fanelwa Ajayi-Ngece is one of the SAYAS Co-Chairs and is a senior lecturer at the Chemistry Department and a research leader at the Enzyme Sensor Laboratory, SensorLab at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). She teaches Physical Chemistry at second, third year and honours level and is involved in postgraduate research supervisions. A/Prof Ajayi-Ngece has been at UWC for the past 15 years during which she completed both her undergraduate and postgraduate studies, and later her PhD in 2011. She specializes in the development of HIV and TB treatment drug metabolism sensors and the synthesis of various green method synthesized conducting polymeric and metallic nanomaterials and finding biological applications for them. Ajayi-Ngece has recently been a Visiting Professor at the University of Missouri, Columbia Campus in the USA and the University of Cergy Pontoise in France. She is also an advisory board member of Cambridge Scholars Publishing, a board member of Team Buntu Africa, and a member of ISE, SACI and WASET.
A/Prof Ajayi-Ngece is the founder of AmaQawe ngeMfundo a non-profit organization aimed at providing on-site STEM experiments for learners in marginalized communities. She is also the co-founder of KasiMaths a scalable low cost mathematic HUB for learners in marginalized communities established after she and her team won first prize at the prestigious TechWomen Programme in Silicon Valley. She has recently been named one of South Africa’s Inspiring Fifty Women in STEM in South Africa. She is passionate about STEM education and considers herself an educational activist and motivational speaker dealing with various STEM educational topics.