Our Team
Dr Taurai (Brighton) Imbayarwo is the Founding Director of Africa Science Trackers, a science indexing; and a Research and Consulting Company in Higher Education, Science and Technology based in Cape Town, South Africa. Having completed his doctoral studies with the aid of the Baden-Wurtenberg and DAAD Scholars (Universities of Tuebingen and Paderbon- Germany), he worked as a Scientific Writing Consultant at the University of Stellenbosch`s Language Lab, and later at CREST (Centre for Research on Science & Technology) as an assistant database manager and researcher. Whilst at CREST, he undertook studies in Science and Technology. He produced a number of briefs in SA's international collaboration in Science and Technology that were commissioned by the South African department of Science and Technology. He was also involved in a number of projects which include "The State of Public Science in the SADC Region" commissioned by SARUA. He has also authored articles (forthcoming) entitled, "The indispensability of tracking scholarly output and the need for bibliometric databases in Africa", and "The impact of the Zimbabwe crisis on its internationally visible scientific output". Beside tracking and indexing scholarly output related to or on the African continent, he has research interests in Higher Education, Science and Technology, evaluation of research performance, development of national S&T/R&D performance indicators and policies; brain drain and intellectual capacity in Africa among others.
Derick Van Niekerk joined as the managing director of operations and brings on board his experience in tracking scientific output and demographic information of scientists within South Africa. He is an adept web application developer and a supporter of open source- and free software.
Dr. Alec Basson (Researcher)obtained his doctorate from the University of Stellenbosch in April 2005 after conducting research at the Eberhard-Karls University in Tuebingen, Germany as a DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst / German Foreign Exchange Service) scholarship holder. After receiving his doctorate, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Ancient Studies at the University of Stellenbosch until December 2007. During his tenure as a post-doctoral research fellow, Dr. Basson published 18 peer-reviewed articles in national and international accredited journals. In 2008, he completed a B.Phil in Social Sciences Research Methods at the University of Stellenbosch with courses ranging from principles of research designs to computerized qualitative research. Currently, Dr. Basson is interested in the different forms of programme evaluation and the importance of such evaluations for various governmental and non-governmental programmes. He focuses on the role of logic models as indispensible tools for assessing the effectiveness of such programmes. Moreover, he emphasises the importance of qualitative data collection methods to enhance the evaluation of the various stages of a particular project.
Ms Molline Marume (Associate Researcher) is currently a PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University (Sociology for Development). She is focusing on transformation challenges in the South African wine industry. She has a Masters Degree in Development Policy from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. She has worked for the Trade law centre for Southern (Tralac). She attended a six-month course on Development studies at Hohenheim University in Stuttgart, Germany, which mainly focused on development problems of developing countries. Molline obtained her BSc Hons degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Zimbabwe. She has expertise in development issues, agriculture and trade.
Mr. Brian Mahumani (Researcher) holds MSc in Agricultural Economics from the University of Stellenbosch with a thesis entitled, "The Rural and Agricultural Value of Groundwater as an Economic Resource in the Limpopo Region." His area of interest and expertise is Resource Economics Research and Policy, Rural Development Project Coordination, Agri-Business Communication (Extension), Crop and Livestock Production.
Mr. Daniel Goldberg (Business Advisor) is in the final stages of his studies in business at Philipps-University, Marburg/Germany. He is currently in South Africa doing an internship at Africa Science Trackers. His duties focus on the business adminstration, finance and development of Africa Science Trackers. Additionally, Daniel is helping to establish partnerships between Africa Science Trackers and the German speaking institutions and agencies that are interested in development in the region and on the African continent.