Priscilla Baker

Priscilla Baker is a professor of analytical chemistry at the University of the Western Cape. She is the co-leader of SensorLab, a research platform in electrochemistry that deals with the electrodynamics of materials and sensors. She is an active member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, European Scientific Network for Artificial Muscles (ESNAM) and the Marie Curie International staff exchange scheme (IRSES). Career Baker obtained her BSc at the University of Cape Town and majored in Ocean and Atmospheric Science as the only black female in her class. She then completed her National Diploma in Analytical Chemistry, at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. After getting interested in electrochemistry, she did her BSc Honours (Chemistry) and successfully completed her MSc dissertation (Chemistry) on the evaluation of trace metals in the atmosphere at University of the Western Cape. In 2004, she received her PhD (Chemistry) in the area of novel metal tin oxide composites as anodes for phenol degradation, at the University of Stellenbosch. In 2014, Baker received the Distinguished Woman Scientist Award in the category of Physical and Engineering Sciences from the Department of Science and Technology's annual Women in Science Awards ceremony. Baker became the director of the Southern African Systems Analysis Centre (SASAC) in November 2017. Baker served as director of the SASAC programme and member of the programme executive team, from 2017-2019. She was instrumental in advancing cross disciplinary research understanding and promoting engagement in systems analysis in South Africa and Africa, through appropriate recruitment strategies, targeted workshops and co-supervision or collaboration from IIASA in Austria, the seat of systems analysis. Through the SASAC programme approximately 60 PhD candidates from South Africa and Africa were recruited into interdisciplinary and trans-boundary research relevant to national, regional, and global needs.