I hold a PhD in Applied Sciences in Materials Engineering, a PRINCE2 practitioner certification and a Professional Project Management program and more than 15 years of experience in the research and development sector initially as a research scientist and later performing the dual role of a senior research scientist and a senior project manager. Working as a project manager in the Manufacturing Cluster of the CSIR with a group of more than 50 employees, my daily tasks involved planning, budgeting, resource allocation, risk analysis and mitigation, project procurement, project execution, project tracking, stakeholder engagement as well the human resource aspect of the project, report writing drafting of legal documents (SLAs, MoU, MoA, NDAs, etc). As a senior manager I am constantly mentoring and coaching younger staff members to ensure the future of our impact is secured. Earlier, my research interests were on improving tribological properties of Titanium alloy via surface modification. This involved introducing interstitial (oxygen) atoms onto the surface of the alloy at elevated temperatures to increase the hardness – I obtained my research-based MSc degree on this study. When I joined the CSIR, the focus was on (upstream and downstream) beneficiation of light (Titanium and Aluminium) metals, an initiative of the Department of Science and Innovation. My work involved surface modification of Aluminium alloys via laser surface alloying – this involved incorporating hard ceramic particles onto the laser-molten surface of Aluminium alloy. I had a particular interest in casting of Aluminium alloys reinforced with nano ceramic particles to enhance the properties of this versatile metal. As part of beneficiating light metals the team embarked on downstream fabrication techniques such metal casting, superplastic forming and metal powder consolidation (Metal Injection Moulding, Press and Sinter, Direct Powder Rolling, Additive Manufacturing) techniques. My PhD research focused on two matrices, namely Nickel Aluminide and Austenitic Steel as well as two reinforcements namely, Titanium Carbide and Oxynitrides. NiAl alloys are candidates for high temperature structural materials due to their high melting temperature, low density, good thermal conductivity and excellent oxidation resistance. This class of materials has however found limited applications due to low room temperature ductility and poor machinability. Stainless steel is still the lifeblood for a number of industrial applications due to their multipurpose attributes, long life cycle and recyclability. TiC is the third most used reinforcement behind SiC and Al2O3. Metal oxynitrides have been developed as materials for photocatalytic, gas sensing and various other applications. For the current study, the eight aspects (two matrices, two reinforcements and four composite systems) are studied and some are captured by means of peer reviewed publications in scientific journals.