A founder member of the South African Young Academy of Science

SAYAS was launched in September 2011 after an incubation process that was supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Academy of Science for South Africa (ASSAf).

Prof Gupta is a Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Pretoria. After completing a PhD degree at the University of Connecticut in the USA in May 2005, he joined UP’s Department as a Senior Lecturer in August 2005 and was promoted to Associate Professor in July 2007. He secured his BSc (Honours) degree from RKMR College, Narendrapur, and MSc degree from the University of Calcutta. His academic interests are mainly monetary theory and policy, business cycles and time-series econometrics. He has published widely (85 articles to date) in internationally accredited journals. He is ranked 46th on the list of young economists in the world, as of August 2011, in a ranking system maintained by Research Papers in Economics (RePEc).

Young scientists represent the future of a country’s science and technology development and their inclusion from an early stage in the processes that build a country’s system of innovation is critical. After less than a year of incubation, including planning and developmental work by seven members of a Working Group, a cohort of 20 founding members was announced. These members come from institutions across South Africa and represent excellence in natural science and humanities.

SAYAS will provide the first platform for leading young scientists to speak as a unified and representative voice on matters that concern the careers of young scientists and issues of importance to the South African society in general where science plays a role. Given that this group of people represents the wide diversity of young science leaders of the future, SAYAS will be a valuable resource for government and other policy-makers who are searching for ways to increase capacity and transform South African science.

This platform will allow this generation of scientists to engage directly with other scientists (younger and older) and science-based organisations, as well as government, business and society at large, in a more powerful way than would otherwise be possible. This engagement aims to stimulate and steer changes that are necessary within the science system to deal with the complex challenges facing South Africa and the world today. SAYAS will seek to provide the highest platform for engagement with government on young scientist issues in South Africa.