Mj Mphahlele
Chair and Professor
Chemistry
University of South Africa
South Africa
Biography
MJ Mphahlele is eminent personality in the field of Chemistry and meanwhile Chair person and professor in the department of Bio-chemistry at University of SouthAfrica.
Research Interest
The main thrust of Prof Mphahlele's current and future research is directed towards physical organic chemistry (synthetic, structural, mechanistic) and bioorganic chemistry research. His work is characterised by a deep appreciation of mechanism and reactivity and is driven by the gaps and limitations in our arsenal of methods to construct novel molecules. The focus is on the synthesis and chemistry of biologically relevant (i) nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compounds and (ii) phosphorus- and/ or sulfur-containing organic compounds. Spectroscopic methods (1D- and 2-D NMR, mass and FT-IR), quantum chemical calculations (semi-empirical, ab initio and DFT) and X-ray crystallography are also applied to structural problems involving novel heterocyclic and heteroatom-containing compounds.
