Dr Francisca Munyeza

Dr. Chiedza Francisca Munyeza was educated at the University of KwaZulu Natal where she received a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) degree in Chemistry in 2013 and a Master of Science in Medical Sciences (Majoring in Pharmaceutical Chemistry) in 2015. She completed her PhD from the school of Chemistry, University of Pretoria, South Africa in August 2020. Her PhD thesis was titled “Monitoring of atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons through optimization of analytical techniques”. Her studies were funded by the prestigious National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. Through her PhD studies, Dr Munyeza has built excellent reputation as a young scientist on both national and international levels. In June 2017 and June 2018 she was a contracted visiting PhD student at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, Germany, where she focused on aerosol measurements in indoor setups. She was also nominated for the NRF South Africa and NRF Kenya grant which allowed her to carry out an air sampling campaign and monitor semi-volatile organic compounds in Kenyan households.

Dr Munyeza joined the Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER), University of Newcastle, Australia, as a Research assistant in the organic analytical laboratory in January 2020. Her key skills are mass spectrometry and chromatography using GC-MS, GC-MS/MS, LCMS and LC-MS/MS. She has also gained hands on experience with other analytical and spectroscopy techniques such as FTIR, UV-Vis-NIR and TGA. In October 2020, she continued as a research associate in GCER. Her role mainly focuses on the development and validation of analytical methods for emerging contaminants found in multiple environmental matrices. 

Dr Munyeza is an early career researcher who also supports various projects carried out by staff and HDR students in the organic analytical lab. After joining GCER, she has received training from senior analysts and from Agilent technologies (2 certificates), to maintain and troubleshoot analytical instruments. She is interested in green technology, water and air quality and the overall national quality standards in the organic lab. In this regard, she is currently involved in the NATA certification procedural development in GCER.