Samuel Chigome

Talk Title: Coating of surfaces with polymer particles and fabrication of nanofiber membranes by electrohydrodynamic material fabrication techniques

Samuel Chigome received his PhD in Chemistry from Rhodes University, South Africa. His PhD focused on the development of electrospun nanofiber based solid phase extraction devices.

Samuel has been involved in electrospinning research over the past fifteen years, initially with a focus on a fundamental understanding of the electrospinning process where he performed experiments with what is regarded as the most basic electrospinning set up in the world, progressively, he shifted to electrospun nanofiber-based device fabrication spanning carbon nanofiber electrode material, chromatographic material, enzyme immobilized membranes, composite membranes to electrosprayed superhydrophobic polymer surfaces. In his current role as a Senior Researcher in Nanomaterials at the Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI), he oversees two electrospinning laboratories that consist of two pilot scale and five laboratory scale electrospinning units. Additionally, he leads a team of Researchers that develop materials for water purification. Furthermore, he supervises graduate students who mostly conduct research on the development of electrospun and electrosprayed materials. Samuel is the President of the African Materials Research Society (AMRS), Head of the Regional Office in Africa of the International Union of Materials Research Societies (IUMRS), member of the International Advisory Board of the State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials (SKLFPM) at Donghua University, member of the Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Nano, member of the Advisory Board of the US-Africa Initiative in Electronic Structure, Editorial Board Member of Discover Materials and co-convener in the Condensed Matter and Materials Physics Working Group of the African Strategy for Fundamental and Applied Physics.