FameLab South Africa 2026 winner Dr Nthabiseng Moshokoa has her finger on the pulse

Dr Nthabiseng Moshokoa, a young researcher from Mintek, has won the FameLab South Africa 2026 title and will now represent South Africa in Poland. She didn’t skip a beat at the 14th South African FameLab final, held on 5 October 2026 at the National Research Foundation (NRF) Corporate Office, where her talk on combating heart disease took the top spot. Ms Lauren Johnston from Nelson Mandela University (NMU) and Ms Londeka Dube from the University of South Africa (UNISA) were close runners-up.

Bringing together AI computation and 3D printing, Dr Moshokoa works to give doctors the right equipment to combat blocked arteries. She made the science instantly relatable, saying, “Imagine a stream where water flows to an ocean, and that stream suddenly gets clogged by dirt. Water cannot flow to its full capacity. That’s what happens to our arteries when they get blocked with plaque.” The materials she is designing, she explained, will push plaque out of the way so that blood can flow freely again.

That clarity is exactly what FameLab demands. The competition challenges young scientists to communicate their science to a public audience in only three minutes, staying accurate while translating their research into language everyone can understand.

The judges commended both runners-up for their powerful talks. Londeka’s research focuses on making clean drinking water widely available through nanotechnology, while Lauren is working towards making cancer drugs smaller and safer through targeted delivery.

Responding to one of the judges, Dr Moshokoa explained why communicating her work matters to her.

“Whenever my mom asked me, ‘What do you do?’ I used to struggle to tell her that ‘I design this’ or ‘I develop this’. I feel like it is very important for me to communicate my science, especially to non-scientists, so that they can be aware, especially when cardiovascular diseases are rising at an alarming rate.”

Dr Mamoeletso Mosia, Managing Director of the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (NRF-SAASTA), opened the proceedings by asking the audience, “Why do we keep supporting this initiative?”

She explained why science communication is central to the organisation’s mission.

“It is important for us as researchers in South Africa to communicate our science because currently science and research are so foreign to people. And they don’t understand what is happening in these great halls of research… In order for South Africa to understand our research, we also need our researchers to communicate.”

Each of the finalists received training from science communication specialists at Jive Media Africa ahead of the institutional heats, and in a series of science communication masterclasses.

Dr Mbulelo Ncango, Managing Director: Research Advancement, credited this science and media training and commented on the high level of professionalism in the talks. “One could see the quality of the delivery on display. It’s a testament to the amount of work that the Jive team has put in.”

Robert Inglis, Director of Research Engagement at Jive Media Africa, spoke about the transformative journey participants experience.

“We now have knowledge, but it is being produced in isolation from the people that it is going to impact. And so that is what we are really trying to do with FameLab, is to develop the innate skills that each researcher has to connect with people so that their ideas can be shared and cause change in the world.”

Dr Moshokoa said she wished other researchers in the country could receive the same opportunity to learn the skills for talking to general audiences and let their passion for their work shine through.

“The experience was eye-opening and taught me so much about communicating science,” she concluded.

FameLab has been running in South Africa since 2013 and forms part of the global FameLab network, which has reached more than 45 000 young scientists worldwide. The competition, managed by Jive Media Africa in collaboration with NRF-SAASTA, is recognised as one of the country’s leading science communication platforms. This year’s competition trained over 300 researchers and the national semi-final brought together the top 20 outstanding speakers.

Read all about them here: https://jivemedia.co.za/famelab-top-20-2026/