About-the-Design-Policy-Conference-Brochure

DESIGN POLICY
CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
HESTER DU PLESSIS
SOUTH AFRICA
Dr Hester du Plessis holds a PhD in
Philosophy from UNISA’s Department of
African Philosophy. She is the Faculty Head:
Humanity, at Mapungubwe Institute for
Strategic Reflection (MISTRA).
She was previously employed as a
Senior Research Specialist (Science
Communication Research) in the Research
Use and Impact Assessment (RIA) unit at the
Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)
of South Africa.
Hester has extensive academic and
journalistic experience in the field of Art
and Design, having lectured at the Tshwane
University of Technology (TUT) and fulfilled
the role of Senior Researcher in the Faculty
of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA)
at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).
She was also an Associate Researcher at
the Sustainable Energy Technology and
Research (SeTAR) Centre in the Department
of Geography, Environmental Management
and Energy Research in the Faculty of
Science at UJ. She has also authored a
number of publications.
In India, she held a Research Chair in Design
Education and Innovation at the National
Institute of Design (NID) in the Design Vision
Centre (DVC) - an Autodesk sponsored
Centre of Excellence that provides integrated
design support.
Hester is a research team member at the
unit for Science Communication through
Multi-Media (SCM); the National Institute
of Science Communication and Information
Resources (NISCAIR) and the Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in
New Delhi, India.
She serves on the Editorial Board of the
Journal for Scientific Temper at NISCAIR.
On top of serving as Steering Committee
member on the project Journées Hubert
Curien at the University of Lorraine in Nancy,
France, she is also a Steering Committee
member for the SAASTA 3rd African Science
Communication Conference.
EZIO MANZINI
ITALY
For more than two decades Ezio Manzini
has been working in the field of design for
sustainability. Recently, he focussed his
interests on social innovation and started
DESIS, an international design network for
social innovation and sustainability.
In addition to his continuous involvement in
the design for sustainability arena, he has
explored and promoted design potentialities
in different fields. During the 1980s his focus
was on Design of Materials, whilst in the
1990s it was on Strategic Design. Over the
last fifteen years he has concentrated on
Service Design.
Ezio collaborates with the Politecnico di
Milano and is an Honorary Guest Professor
at the Tongji University in Shanghai as well
as at the Jiangnan University in Wuxi and
at the University of the Arts in London.
Presently, he is a visiting professor at the
Cape Peninsula University of Technology in
Cape Town.
For his work he has received numerous
prizes and honorary titles. These include
the Compasso d’Oro (Italian Design Prizes),
the Sir Misha Back Medal, an Honorary
Doctorate of Fine Arts at The New School
of New York and being named Honorary
Professor at both the Glasgow School of Art
and at the Aalto University in Finland.
In 2013 he was awarded Jiangsu Friendship
in China.
MUGENDI K. M’RITHAA
KENYA / SOUTH AFRICA
Mugendi M’Rithaa is a Kenyan born
industrial designer, educator and
researcher at the Cape Peninsula University
of Technology. He holds postgraduate
qualifications in industrial design and higher
education, as well as a doctorate in universal
design.
After completing his Master’s Degree in
industrial design at the Indian Institute
of Technology in Mumbai, he returned to
Kenya, where he taught at and started both
the industrial design and interior design
programmes at the University of Nairobi. He
then went on to teach at the University of
Botswana, where again he helped launch the
industrial design programme.
Mugendi has played an influential role in
promoting design and design education on
the African continent and is passionate about
various expressions of socially responsive
and responsible design, including design
for sustainability, participatory design, and
universal design. He has a special interest
in the pivotal role of design in advancing
the developmental agenda on the African
continent.
He is associated with a number of
international networks focusing on design
within industrially developing/majority
world contexts, and is currently serving
a second term on the executive board of
the International Council of Societies of
Industrial Design (Icsid).
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