Distinguished guests;

Ladies and gentlemen:

Let me start by thanking you for inviting me to address this prestigious gathering, the 59th Annual Conference of the South African Institute of Physics. I’d like to take this opportunity to extend a warm South African welcome to our guests and invited speakers from other African countries, Europe, and Asia.

I would also like to extend a special welcome to young physicists, who are joining the community of physicists for the first time. 

Apparently there is a great demand for physicists in the field of finance. At first sight this might seem strange. What do financiers want with scientists trained in the mysteries of mass? Perhaps it's not so strange after all. There are similarities between modeling particle systems and modeling financial systems. It's all about dealing with complex networks. And physicists are good at networks. 

I had the pleasure of addressing your annual conference in 2012 at the time of the discovery of the Higgs boson. In 2013 François Englert and Peter Higgs won the Nobel prize in Physics for their work in predicting the existence of the Higgs boson. Time waits for no man or woman in the physics world. This year it's the centenary of crystallography. It's quite remarkable that 28 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to projects related to the field. Now it's the turn of some of the younger members in the audience to add to the number.

Speaking of anniversaries, the university of Johannesburg will be ten years old next year. May I take this opportunity to offer my congratulations to Prof. Ihron Rensburg and his management team.

I would also like to congratulate the Institute for its pioneering review initiatives that have and will have far-reaching effects on science training. In 2004 the Institute reviewed the science disciplines through the International Panel Report on Shaping the Future of Physics in South Africa. Thirteen of the fourteen recommendations from the Review have been implemented, including the establishment of the National Institute of Theoretical Physics (NITheP), the formation of the DST-funded SAIP Office, the Synchrotron Research Strategy, and the South African National Research Network (SANReN) that are crucial for projects such as big data transfers through SKA and the biosciences.

Recently the Institute also reviewed physics undergraduate training in South Africa.  This was the first review in collaboration with the Council on Higher Education (CHE), the evaluation arm of the university sector. I understand you are in the process implementing recommendations from this undergraduate review, and I commend you for your foresight.

Our policy is to place good science teachers in all schools. In the DST we play our part through the Youth into Science programme. The Institute is playing its part by running the “Physics Teacher Development Project” and with great success, I'm told. I urge the Institute to expand this project to all the nine provinces, taking special care to include previously disadvantaged communities. 

I am most impressed by the Institute's efforts to nurture talent through planned workshops and winter-schools at this conference. The Astroparticle Physics Winter-School will improve knowledge required for the SKA and MeerKAT projects. The Magnetism Winter-School will help implement the National Nanotechnology Strategy.  

I also wish to commend the SAIP for hosting the “Photovoltaics Workshop”. Currently, renewable energy contributes very little to primary energy, and even less to the consumption of commercial energy. South Africa has a renewable-energy target of 10 000 Giga Watt hours. In order to reach this renewable energy target, we need to invest more aggressively in renewable energy research and development. The Institute is addressing this need through the "Entrepreneurship for Physicists and Engineers" programme.

Inclusivity, universal access to science, and the participation of women are major concerns for government. To address our concerns, the Institute and the DST jointly established the Women in Physics in South Africa (WiPiSA) forum in 2005. I commend the Institute for going a step further by reserving a plenary slot for addressing issues of women in physics at all its annual conferences.

In closing, the South African discipline of physics grows more complex and more engaged each year. The institute has a remarkable track record in transforming, fostering and maintaining physics in South Africa. I trust that the Institute and the DST will continue working together within the constraints of an increasingly tight funding situation. I hope this conference will strengthen our international collaboration on key projects such as the SA-CERN programme, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (SA-JINR), MeerKAT, the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) and the SKA.