Water Wheel March/April 2020: Water Personality

Abstract

The nascent Pollution Research Group (PRG) began to bubble back in the early 1970s, housed in the Chemical Engineering building at the former University of Natal in Durban. Nearly 50 years later – but now in the subterranean basement – the university’s world-acclaimed contract research group has grown considerably under the co-leadership of Prof Chris Buckley and Susan Mercer. Now aged 70, but still sprightly and brimming with ideas, he has supervised more than 100 Masters and PhD students at the PRG, and for several years has been among the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s top grant-holding fund raisers. In the mid-1960s, Prof Buckley obtained a student loan from the old Durban Corporation to study chemical engineering, later entering the cavernous main laboratory to launch his fourth-year project: finding ways to reduce the volume of industrial dyes in textile effluent. Buckley recalls that as a youngster, he was placed in the “D class” at Westville Boys’ High School, where he enjoyed geography and book-keeping (accounting).

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