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Tshilidzi Marwala (born 28 July 1971) is a South African artificial intelligence engineer, a computer scientist, a mechanical engineer and a university administrator. He is currently Rector of the United Nations University and UN Under-Secretary-General. In August 2023 Marwala was appointed to the United Nations scientific advisory council.

Biography

Early life and education

Marwala was born at Duthuni Village in the Limpopo Province. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Case Western Reserve University, graduating Magna Cum Laude, followed by a PhD in artificial intelligence from the University of Cambridge in 2000.

Career

From 2000 to 2001, Marwala was a post-doctoral research associate at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. In 2003, he joined the University of the Witwatersrand and became a professor of electrical engineering in 2008. From 2013 to 2017, He was the deputy vice chancellor for research and internationalization as well as the dean of engineering at the University of Johannesburg.

From 2018 to 2023, Marwala was the vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Johannesburg. As Vice-Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, Marwala developed and implemented the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) strategy, by introducing a compulsory artificial intelligence course and an Africa Insights course for all students, irrespective of their majors.

Marwala has been Rector of the United Nations University and UN Under-Secretary-General since 1 March 2023. He was a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) committee that developed the ethical guidelines of using artificial intelligence in medicine.

Marwala served as a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation (2020-2023) and on a board of Nedbank (2019-2023). He is a member of council of the University of Peace and the STS Forum Kyoto.

Marwala was the Deputy Chair of South Africa’s Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (with the President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa serving as Chair). He is the Chair of the International Scientific Advisory Board for the African Centre of Excellence in the Internet of Things (ACE-IoT) based in Rwanda. The government of Namibia appointed him on the Fourth Industrial Revolution Task Team.

Research

Marwala's research interests include the theory and application of artificial intelligence to engineering and computer science such as the St. Petersburg paradox, blockchain, and poker., finance and economics, medicine like his work on pulmonary embolism epileptic activity, HIV and Covid-19, and political science.

Outreach and public engagement

Marwala work and opinion have appeared in media such as New Scientist, The Economist, CNN, and BBC. He has also given talks at Royal Society, Cambridge Union, and Oxford Union. In 2016 Tshilidzi Marwala delivered the Bernard Price Memorial Lecture in South Africa. With Stephen Hawking and Guy Laliberté, he was a judge of the YouTube Space Lab competition.

Personal life

Marwala is married to Jabulile Vuyiswa Manana since 2000, and together they have 3 children.

Awards and honours

Marwala is a fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (2010), African Academy of Sciences (2012), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2022), Chinese Academy of Sciences (2023), and the Academy of Science of South Africa. He is the recipient of the Order of Mapungubwe. In 2022, Marwala was awarded the IT Personality of the Year Award in South Africa for his work on the fourth Industrial Revolution. In 2020 the Science-for-Society Gold Medal from the Academy of Science of South Africa, and in 2024 the Hans Carl von Carlowitz Sustainability Award.

Marwala has received honorary doctorates from the Caucasus University in Tbilisi in Georgia, the University of Venda. and Tshwane University of Technology. Marwala has been a visiting fellow at Harvard University, Wolfson College, Cambridge, and University of California, Berkeley. He is an honorary professor at the Nanjing Tech University as well as the Central South University in The People's Republic of China.

In high school he won the National Youth Science Olympiad and represented South Africa in the London International Youth Science Forum.

See also

• Simon Connell – Particle physicist in South Africa
• Youba Sokona – Malian climatologist (born 1950)
• Mohamed Thameur Chaibi – Tunisian professor of Rural Engineering

References

1. "Tshilidzi Marwala | United Nations University". UNU | United Nations University. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
2. "UN Secretary-General Creates Scientific Advisory Board". UNU, United Nations University. United Nations University. Retrieved 30 August 2023.
3. "UN Secretary-General Creates Scientific Advisory Board for Independent Advice on Breakthroughs in Science and Technology | UN Press". press.un.org. 3 August 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
4. ^ Mkize, Phumla (16 August 2022). "Well-travelled professor who loves technology". Sunday World. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
5. "Case Western Reserve University Alumni". 3 March 2023. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
6. "University of Cambridge PhD Thesis". 3 March 2023. Retrieved 13 February 2023.
7. ^ "Namibia". The Namibian. 27 April 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
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11. "WHO" (PDF). 20 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
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18. Tshilidzi Marwala (2003). "Fault classification using pseudo modal energies and neural networks". American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Journal. 41 (1): 82–89. Bibcode:2003AIAAJ..41...82M. doi:10.2514/2.1916.
19. Tshilidzi Marwala; Sibusiso Sibisi (2005). "Finite element model updating using Bayesian framework and modal properties". American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Journal of Aircraft. 42 (1): 275–278. doi:10.2514/1.11841.
20. Tshilidzi Marwala (2002). "Finite element model updating using wavelet data and genetic algorithm". American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Journal of Aircraft. 39 (4): 709–711. doi:10.2514/2.2971.
21. Muller, Daniel; Marwala, Tshilidzi (2019). "Relative Net Utility and the Saint Petersburg Paradox". arXiv:1910.09544 .
22. Marwala, Tshilidzi; Xing, Bo (2015). "Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence". arXiv:1802.04451 .
23. Marwala, Tshilidzi; Hurwitz, Evan (7 May 2007). "Learning to bluff". arXiv:0705.0693 .
24. Merali, Zeeya (2 June 2007). "Software learns when it pays to deceive". New Scientist.
25. Marwala, Tshilidzi; Hurwitz, Evan (2015). "Artificial Intelligence and Asymmetric Information Theory". arXiv:1510.02867 .
26. "Artificial Intelligence can Reduce Information Asymmetry : Networks Course blog for INFO 2040/CS 2850/Econ 2040/SOC 2090". blogs.cornell.edu. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
27. Marwala, Tshilidzi; Hurwitz, Evan (2017). Artificial Intelligence and Economic Theory: Skynet in the Market. London: Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-66104-9.
28. Scurrell, Simon; Marwala, Tshilidzi; Rubin, David (2007). "Automatic Detection of Pulmonary Embolism using Computational Intelligence". arXiv:0706.0300 .
29. Nadim Mohamed; David Rubin; Tshilidzi Marwala (2006). "Detection of epileptiform activity in human EEG signals using Bayesian neural networks". Neural Information Processing-Letters and Reviews. 10 (1).
30. B.B. Leke; T. Marwala (2006). "Autoencoder networks for HIV classification". Current Science. 81 (11).
31. R. Mbuvha; T. Marwala (2020). "Bayesian inference of COVID-19 spreading rates in South Africa". PLOS ONE. 15 (8): e0237126. Bibcode:2020PLoSO..1537126M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0237126. PMC 7406053. PMID 32756608.
32. Tshilidzi Marwala; Monica Lagazio (2011). Militarized Conflict Modeling Using Computational Intelligence. Heidelberg: Springer. ISBN 978-0-85729-789-1.
33. Bhaso Ndzendze; Tshilidzi Marwala (2021). Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies in International Relations. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing. ISBN 978-981-123-454-5.
34. Bhaso Ndzendze; Tshilidzi Marwala (2023). Artificial Intelligence and International Relations Theories. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-9811948763.
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49. "ASAf Fellows in South Africa". Academy of Science of South Africa. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
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57. "South African Fellowship Program certificates awarded". Harvard Gazette. 7 June 2007. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
58. "New appointment for former Visiting Fellow | Wolfson College Cambridge". www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
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External links

• Biography

• 1971 births
• Living people
• Under-Secretaries-General of the United Nations
• Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• TWAS fellows
• People from Thulamela Local Municipality
• Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
• Case Western Reserve University alumni
• University of Pretoria alumni
• Science and technology in South Africa
• Alumni of St John's College (Johannesburg)
• Vice-chancellors of the University of Johannesburg
• South African engineers
• South African inventors
• 21st-century South African scientists
• South African computer scientists
• 21st-century inventors
• Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences