4 the state of science in south africa
C H E M I S T R Y
inorganic chemistry were by now starting to make their presence known and to
to develop, however. For instance, the CSIR become today’s leaders.
Unit of Uranium Chemistry was established
at the University of Port Elizabeth (now the The major paradigm shift at the CSIR, dis-
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University), cussed above, which led to the closure
while bio-inorganic chemistry was intro- of the national laboratories such as the
duced into the country through the ap- NCRL, resulted in the cancellation of all
pointment of an overseas candidate from programmes involving fundamental re-
the University of Oxford and the laboratory search in organometallic chemistry. Ironi-
of RJP Williams, one of the founding labo- cally, these developments coincided with
ratories of bio-inorganic chemistry, to the the period during which globally organo-
newly established chair of inorganic chem- metallic chemistry started to lose its lustre
istry at the University of Witwatersrand and oil companies started to decrease their
(Wits). Although this area of research support for research programmes in and re-
has never grown to the same extent as lated to homogeneous catalysis.
organometallic chemistry, the appoint-
ment created a platform for the genera- An important development in respect of
tion of inorganic chemists who have had inorganic chemistry that took place in 1981
a substantial impact, both nationally and was the establishment of the South African
internationally. Mintek at this time estab- Chemical Institute’s (SACI) Inorganic Chem-
lished a group involved in coordination istry Conference Series, similar to the War-
chemistry with the aim of developing new ren Conferences in Organic Chemistry. This
solvent exchange processes. event permitted the inorganic chemistry
community in South Africa to meet regu-
During the late-1970s, and in particular larly as a body for the first time.
the 1980s, the research of South African
inorganic chemists received consider- During the 1990s, South Africa experienced
able international recognition, driven major political changes that were accompa-
to a great extent by the outstanding nied by far-reaching policy investigations to
organometallic research produced by redirect the research agenda in accordance
the chemistry group at the CSIR and the with new missions. The demise of research
novel work that was emanating from in classical science fields at the CSIR and to
the CSIR Metal Cluster Chemistry Unit at some extent at Mintek had been associated
the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg with a loss of scientists from the profession
(now the University of KwaZulu-Natal). and the departure of many inorganic chem-
This clearly had an impact on the ists overseas. This scenario coincided with
growth of inorganic chemistry, and worldwide shifts in funding support from
organometallic chemistry in particular, curiosity towards relevance, which in South
and a new generation of locally trained Africa, also translated into a move towards
inorganic chemists who researched the social relevance. First, the major public re-
area of organometallic chemistry started search agency, the Foundation for Research
108
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