John was born near Manchester but had university education at the Universities of Leeds and London (King's College). After gaining his PhD in chemistry and completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Florida State University, he joined the Department of Chemistry at Wits University. During his time in the department, he became a full Professor, was President of the Chemical Institute (1988-90) and was Chairman of the IUPAC Committee on Teaching of Chemistry (1996-2001). He joined with two colleagues to create the RADMASTE Centre in 1991 and this has now grown to about 30 staff. As one of the creators of the microscience system he helped establish the UNESCO-IUPAC Global Programme in Microscience, which has ultimately resulted in the creation of this and other UNESCO-Associated Centres for Microscience Experiments. John is currently the Director of the Centre.

Joseph was born in Rwanda and studied chemistry at the National University of Rwanda. Subsequently he obtained his PhD at the University of Nairobi. Joseph speaks English, French and Kinyrwanda fluently and has an extensive knowledge of science education in sub-Saharan Africa, especially Francophone countries. He has conducted microscience workshops in several countries in Africa.

Mpunki was born near Rustenburg and studied chemistry at the University of North West. After some years teaching primary school teachers at a College of Education she furthered her studies at Wits University, completing first a BScHonours and then an MSc in science education. She has been the principal developer of the primary microscience kit and worksheets and has managed a number of projects implementing microscience in primary schools. She has presented some of her work at local and international conferences. She speaks English, Tswana and Afrikaans.

After completing her BSc at the University of the Witwatersrand, Beverly joined RADMASTE and was one of the initial team of people that developed the microscience concept. During her fourteen years at the Centre, she has designed small scale experiments for the microchemistry, microtitration, organic microscience, micro-biology, water quality microscience and micro-electrochemistry packages. She has managed a number of projects which include the implementation of microscience, and is familiar with compiling proposals associated with training of specialists using the microscience concept. She has been instrumental in bringing to completion the preparation of translated versions of the RADMASTE Microscience publications, including French, Portuguese and Spanish. As a member of the UNESCO-Associated Centre, one of her assignments has been to make available on the internet web-based versions of the microscience materials for free access by learners and educators. She has also prepared poster pictures of microscience kits for classroom use. Beverly is fluent in English and can also communicate in Afrikaans.

Maria was born in Athens and speaks English, Greek, French, but also communicates in Italian. She came to South Africa with a four-year degree in Physics from the University of Patras. Subsequently, she joined the University of the Witwatersrand, where she did research on neutron activation analysis for MINTEK and obtained an MSc in Applied and Industrial Nuclear Physics. Before joining RADMASTE, she had taught physics extensively to undergraduate students primarily through her work as a Physics Coordinator at a South African College. Since 1995 she has been a member of the RADMASTE Centre as a Research and Development Officer. Her work entails training of educators and developing teaching and learning packages, including multimedia materials. She has been instrumental in the development of the microelectricity kit and accompanying worksheets, which have been extended to cover electromagnetism and more recently electronics. She has been a principal author for the series of textbooks Physical Sciences for the Classroom, where microscience activities are integrated into the theory.

Mrs J Ovens

Jill joined RADMASTE in 1995. Before moving into teacher education she taught general science, biology and physical science in Kwa-Zulu Natal.  Jill has co-ordinated a university programme  (the ACE: Advanced Certificate in Education) and has developed Natural Sciences courses for this. She tutors 1st Year and 2nd Year Natural Sciences ACE students. She develops and presents Biology/Natural Sciences workshops for educators and subject specialists within South Africa’s borders and in other African countries. She has also assisted in the authoring of the South African textbook that integrates microscience into classroom teaching - Physical Sciences for the Classroom (Grades 10 and 11).