SAWiSA 2026: Prof. Nirmala Dorasamy Named Second Runner-Up in Distinguished Woman Researchers Category
As South Africa commemorates the 70th anniversary of the historic 1956 march of 20 000 women to the Union Buildings, the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) is proud to showcase the extraordinary finalists for the 2026 South African Women in Science Awards (SAWiSA).
Prof. Nirmala Dorasamy is a Second Runner-up in the Distinguished Woman Researchers category: Humanities and Social Sciences. She is a Full Professor in Public Management at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) and a C2 NRF-rated researcher. Her research focuses on ethics, leadership and public-sector management, with an emphasis on enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of public service delivery underpinned by strong governance within a democratic dispensation. She currently teaches on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the Department of Public Management at DUT and has participated in several staff mobility programmes.
Prof. Dorasamy was instrumental in establishing the Centre for African Governance and Development at DUT, where she served as Acting Director. She currently serves as Project Leader for the BRICS Research Institute Community of Practice: Law and Governance, a collaboration that has produced several publications and webinars. She was also part of two African Independent Development Strategies projects (a cooperative baseline survey and an agricultural survey for the Zimbabwean government) that submitted reports to support women's empowerment. This work pioneered the launch of the Poverty Alleviation and Livelihoods Programme project for women in Jozini, KwaZulu-Natal, drawing on lessons from the Localised Empowerment Acceleration Facility project in Zimbabwe, of which she was also a project member.
Prof. Dorasamy has authored or co-authored about 199 journal articles and 80 book chapters and has presented at 64 international, four national, and three local conferences. She has served as a keynote speaker, guest speaker, and session chair at several international and local conferences. She is co-editor of 10 books and editor of one book, with six further book proposals accepted for publication in 2027.
By hosting two honorary research associates, two research fellows, five postdoctoral fellows, and one professor – all local and international researchers – since 2015, Prof. Dorasamy's research collaborations have generated multidimensional perspectives on governance and development from both global and African viewpoints, while building the research and supervision capacity of her collaborators. She has successfully graduated 33 PhD students (11 women) and 18 master's students (11 women), and has published several articles with her master's and PhD graduates. She currently supervises and co-supervises two master's students (both women) and 15 PhD students (11 women).
Prof. Dorasamy has received several DUT awards, including Top Faculty Researcher in 2012 to 2022, Top Woman Researcher in 2012, 2015, 2019 and 2022, Top Publisher in 2018 to 2021, a Platinum Award for Established Researcher, and a Gold Award for Mentoring and Leadership. She was recognised by the Mail & Guardian, and in a DUT publication as the university's top female researcher for 2020.
Prof. Dorasamy reviews papers for local and international journals and serves on several editorial and advisory committees for international and national journals, including Cognitive Quest and the BRICS Journal of International Relations and Development.
