Rate My Professor Sheena Kumari Kuttan Pillai

Professor Sheena Kumari Kuttan Pillai is a Full Professor at the Institute for Water and Wastewater Technology at Durban University of Technology. She holds a PhD and is an NRF C2-rated researcher. Her research focuses on wastewater treatment, wastewater beneficiation and reuse, emerging pathogens and pollutants in water and wastewater, environmental health and risk assessment, and wastewater-based epidemiology. Professor Pillai leads several national and international projects and serves as the SARChI Chair in Wastewater Treatment and Reuse. She is a professional member of the South African Council of Natural Scientific Professions, an academic member of the International Water Association, and a member of the Water Institute of Southern Africa.

Professor Pillai has published over 100 research articles in reputed journals, achieving a Google Scholar H-index of 31 and more than 4,000 citations, and has co-authored book chapters. She has supervised 13 PhD and 15 master’s students and mentored 6 postdoctoral fellows. Her collaborations extend to institutions such as UKZN, Rhodes University, Columbia University, University of Minnesota, and Oklahoma University, as well as municipalities and water boards. She has secured grants from the NRF, Water Research Commission (eight projects), Nuffic, and the Gates Foundation. Professor Pillai serves on NRF funding panels, WRC steering groups, as an external examiner and reviewer, and as an editor and reviewer for ISI journals. Her awards include the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Creative Project (2022), Top Faculty Researcher (2021), Faculty Research Excellence Award (2020), DUT Top Impact Author Award (2020), and the Department of Science and Innovation South African Young Woman in Science Award (first runner-up, 2019). She received NRF rating as an established researcher for 2016–2021 and 2022–2026.