Rate My Professor Sizwe Mabizela

Professor Sizwe Mabizela serves as Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University, a position he has held since November 2014. Prior to this appointment, he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic and Student Affairs at the same institution from 2008 to October 2014. A mathematician by training and profession, Mabizela earned his BSc, BSc Honours, and MSc degrees from the University of Fort Hare. He completed his PhD in Mathematics at Pennsylvania State University in 1991.

His research focuses on Abstract Approximation Theory, a subfield of Functional Analysis, and he has authored and co-authored several papers published in international journals in the area of Applied Functional Analysis. He has presented numerous keynote and invited addresses at national and international conferences. Mabizela's academic career includes service as an academic in the Department of Pure and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town from 1992 to 2003, where he rose to the rank of Associate Professor and Deputy Head of Department. In 2004, he was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Mathematics (Pure and Applied) at Rhodes University. He has contributed to mathematics education and competitions through membership on the South African Mathematics Olympiad Committee and by chairing the 55th International Mathematics Olympiad, held at the University of Cape Town in 2014—the first time the event was hosted on the African continent. He has also served as a member and Chairperson of the Umalusi Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further Education and Training.