Mr. Samson Simelane

Temporary Lecturer
Name: Samson Simelane
Location: John Orr Building 7th Floor office 7155, Doornfontein Campus
Physics Academic Staff  Staff Members

Contact Details:
Tel: 011 559 6147

Email: 

About Mr. Samson Simelane

Qualifications:

• PhD in Physics, University of Johannesburg – current
• MSc in Physics, University of Johannesburg – 2023
• BSc Honours in Physics, University of Johannesburg – 2019
• BSc in Physics and Mathematics, University of Johannesburg – 2018

Teaching: Introduction to Newtonian Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Electricity, Magnetism, Light and Optics.

Research interest:

Mr. Simelane is interested in the study of the physical properties (structural, magnetic and electrical) of rare earth based intermetallic compounds, such as ReCuGe3 (Re =Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd) at low temperatures. The rare-earth based intermetallic compounds have been receiving considerable attention in the field of low temperature studies because of the discovered magnetic fluctuations at low temperatures. In our research, we aspire to gain insight that will deepen our fundamental understanding of these materials and hence contribute to the development of materials with tailored properties, which could find applications in various technological domains such as spintronic, magnetic storage devices, and sensor technologies.

I have also good expertise in surface science. That is, working with a single crystal substrate using techniques such as X-Ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (XPS), Low-Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED) and Ultra-High Vacuum Temperature Programmed Desorption (UHV-TPD) because in my Masters of Science project I worked on CO/SiO2/Co(0001) inverse model support catalyst to determine the Adsorption of CO on the bare and SiO2 modified Co(0001) using the above mentioned techniques. The aim of the project was to increase the adsorption energy of CO whilst keeping the energy barrier for CO, dissociation constant or even lower, which in turn was to improve the activity and the selectivity of the catalyst in Fischer Tropsch, specifically in the production of gasoline and diesel. For my Honours project I used XPS, Angular Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (ARPES) and LEED to measure the surface state of Au (111) and gain knowledge and understanding of these experimental techniques.

Awards:

• 2022 DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Catalysis Scholarship.
• 2021 DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Catalysis Scholarship.
• 2020 DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Catalysis Scholarship.
• 2019 NRF Honours and Final Year B-Tech Bursary.
• 2015 Top achiever in Physics – Introduction to Classical Mechanics.
• 2015 Top achiever in Applied Mathematics – Introduction to Statics and Dynamics.
• 2015 Top achiever in Mathematics – Calculus of one variable.