Professor Noble Banadda of Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda has become the first African to be awarded the Pius XI medal. This is in recognition of his outstanding researches in science and engineering. The medal, which is awarded by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences every two years to a scientist under the age of 45, was established by Pope John XXIII to promote scientific research. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Food Science and Technology from Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania, earned his Master’s in Processing Engineering and a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. There, he became the first black African to get a Doctorate degree from the University and by the end of his Doctorate, he had nine journal papers in peer-reviewed scientific papers. He has researched and co-published works in the domain of Biosystems engineering and has supervised quite a number of PhD and M.Sc. thesis. According to Google Scholar, his works have been cited over 300 times. Prof. Banadda led a team that pioneered the first ever farmer-based low-cost multiple purpose vehicle in Uganda. He also led a team of students and experts from the University of Kentucky to develop a machine that produces diesel fuel from plastic. The technology relies on a process called pyrolysis, the thermal decomposition of organic material at very high temperatures in the absence of oxygen and the diesel produced is used to run tractor engines and other machines.
SOURCE: VENTURES AFRICA