Professor Zeblon Zenzele Vilakazi FRS was appointed Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University in January 2021. Previously holding the position of Vice-Principal and deputy vice chancellor for research at the university of witwatersrand. 2007-2013: Director of iThemba LABS, the largest nuclear physics research lab in the southern hemisphere. Research interests include nuclear and computational physics.
Taught at University of Cape Town where he was involved in a large scientific project conducted at the ALICE experiment of CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). From 2009 to 2011, served as Chairman of the IAEA Standing Advisory Committee on Nuclear Applications. In July 2022 was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of London.