‘There are so many scientists doing really great work in their fields at the moment that the only way to really do something new is to collaborate with scientists from other fields and disciplines. It is exactly the collaborative environment that I like about being a NITheCS Associate: it has allowed me to meet potential collaborators from different fields – people I would not normally meet at conferences or in other situations. This is particularly important considering that computational science is at the forefront of the 4th Industrial Revolution, so we need to work together to develop the field locally and within Africa.’
Thus comments Prof Catharine Esterhuysen, who became the first female full professor in the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science at Stellenbosch University (SU) in 2018.
‘I am interested in the interactions that bring individual molecules together, and how these influence the properties of materials. In particular, I look at the geometries of the interacting molecules and use these to gain information about the nature and strength of the interactions. For instance, molecules (known as “guests”) can be taken up into porous materials (“hosts”) as a result of the interactions between these species, while the manner in which they interact has an influence on the sorption ability of the porous material.’
She adds: ‘The formation of an intermolecular interaction is the first step in many chemical processes, such as catalytic reactions and sorption, and thus influence both reactivity and selectivity of these processes. Therefore, understanding the role of intermolecular interactions enables us to carefully and systematically modify reaction behaviour such fine-tuning the range of products obtained.’
In addition to her work at SU, Prof Esterhuysen is also the Associate Editor of New Journal of Chemistry and she serves on the International Advisory Boards of several journals and conference series. As president of the South African Crystallographic Society (2014-2021), she delivered a presentation on crystallography in South Africa at the opening ceremony of the International Year of Crystallography at UNESCO in Paris.
Early interest in science
‘Two close collaborators at SU have been particularly instrumental in my career: Prof Len Barbour and Prof Delia Haynes. Prof Barbour has inspired me always to aim high in my research and to do “real” science that is meaningful and impactful,’ Prof Esterhuysen comments.
However, her interest in science started much earlier. Her parents, John and April Thompson, were passionate about science and nature, and under their influence she already knew by the age of nine that she wanted to become a chemist. ‘It became a single-minded goal followed throughout my undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the then Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg).’
She completed a PhD in structural science under the supervision of Gert Kruger and Helgard Raubenheimer, and her first job as lecturer was at SU.
‘During my PhD studies I developed an interest in computational chemistry under the mentorship of Jan Dillen. I developed this further when an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship allowed me to join the group of Gernot Frenking of Philipps University of Marburg in Germany in 2002, and again during an Alexander von Humboldt follow-up fellowship working with Tim Clark at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen.’
She continues: ‘My main focus is now the study of intermolecular interactions, combining my knowledge of computational chemistry and crystallography to explain unusual interactions. I have published extensively on this topic and have given numerous plenary, keynote and invited talks at both local and international conferences.’
Game changers and being innovative
Looking towards the future, Prof Esterhuysen says the two big game-changers in materials science will be AI and quantum computing. ‘Both of these should allow us to develop new materials faster and more efficiently, so we need to ensure that we harness the power of these technologies in a careful and sensible way.’
She says what she loves about science is that ‘not only do I learn something new every day, but being a scientist also allows me to be creative and innovative. This means that for every answer I find to a problem, three more open up! It’s a very exciting field to be in.’
Finally, Prof Esterhuysen adds a personal word of thanks to her husband Matthias: ‘I could not have been where I am today without him – he and my children Fleur and Sebastian have sacrificed so much for me to become the scientist I am!’