Publication: Sunday Times Issued: Date: 2007-05-20 Reporter: Jocelyn Maker Reporter: Megan Power

A Career Most Academics Can Only Dream Of : Professor No 1

 

Publication 

Sunday Times

Date

2007-05-20

Reporter

 Jocelyn Maker, Megan Power

Web Link

www.sundaytimes.co.za

 

When Professor Viktor Verijenko toasted his third bride at a lavish reception at Durban’s Royal Hotel five years ago, he would have had reason to be especially proud.

The 29-year-old brunette at his side was a bright engineering graduate; a year later the former Pietermaritzburg resident would become the first woman in the history of the then University of Natal to obtain a PhD in mechanical engineering.

But Belinda Verijenko’s academic prowess pales in comparison with that of her 52-year-old Ukrainian-born husband.

The internationally recognised researcher’s career, highlighted in his dense 31-page CV, is one most academics only dream of.

Many who moved in Verijenko’s increasingly affluent Durban circle describe him as a charming, articulate man with impeccable credentials.

There was talk of him going on sabbatical in Russia, they said, or taking a job in the US. There were hints he was unhappy with “politics” in the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Others say he has fled the country.

The professor’s growing wealth and access to good research funding didn’t score him points with many of his less fortunate colleagues.

Neither did arriving at work in a Porsche, living with his wife and three-year-old son in a luxury flat in Durban’s prestigious Umhlanga Rocks, and fraternising with wealthy Durban businessmen.

The flat, which he put on the market for R4.5-million when he left the country, was sold a few weeks ago, not long after he got rid of his most prized possession ­ a Porsche Carrera.

In the last three decades, Verijenko has contributed to more than 80 journal papers and more than 100 conference publications in South Africa and abroad.

He has worked with at least 18 international conference organising committees and has sat on six different scientific and advisory boards.

Educated in Ukraine, he obtained a master’s in engineering cum laude in 1977 and a doctorate in engineering mechanics four years later.

He received commendations from Ukraine’s minister of education twice for exceptional research work by a young scientist. Another more senior doctorate, his DSc in solid mechanics obtained in 1987, made him one of the youngest scientists in the field in the former Soviet Union.

Verijenko moved to South Africa in 1991, leaving a professorship at the Kiev Civil Engineering Institute and State University to take up a senior research associate position in the mechanical engineering department at the then University of Natal.

The ambitious academic rose quickly through the ranks to become professor of solid mechanics two years later.

He was appointed director of the university’s Centre for Composite and Smart Materials in 2000 and was head of the school of mechanical engineering by 2005.

It’s this unblemished track record that he has now put at risk.

With acknowledgement to Jocelyn Maker, Megan Power and Sunday Times.