Prestigious Humboldt award presented to Dominguez

UCT's Emeritus Professor Cesareo Dominguez received the inaugural Humboldt Research Award in memory of Neville Alexander at the German embassy on 7 February. It was presented to him by the German Minister of Science, Professor Annette Schavan. This followed the announcement of the recipients late last year.

The award was established by the German-based Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AHF) in memory of UCT scholar and AHF fellow Dr Neville Alexander, who died in August 2012.

Dominguez, an emeritus professor of theoretical physics, was named the winner of the accolade alongside psychologist Professor Soraya Seedat of Stellenbosch University and toxicologist Dr Joseph Owuor Lalah of Kenya.

The award, valued at €60,000 (about R720,000), is part of the Neville Alexander Memorial Fund, worth about €500,000 (about R5,5 million). It was initiated by the AHF to strengthen collaboration between outstanding African and German academics as part of the German-South African Year of Science 2012/2013.

The winners will conduct research in Germany, fostering collaborations with German academics.

Dominguez, whose research area is elementary particle/high-energy physics, has collaborated with colleagues from the Universities of Mainz and Munich, both in Germany, for the past 30 years. This award will allow him to visit these universities twice a year now.