Zeblon Z Vilakazi was appointed Group Executive for Research and Development at the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) in 2011, while also serving as the director of iThemba LABS – a position he has held since 2007.

He holds the title of Honorary Professor of Physics at the University of Cape Town. Dr Vilakazi currently serves - among others - as a member of the Program Advisory Committee of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia. In 2010 he was nominated by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader. Dr Vilakazi's research interests include heavy-ion collisions at high energies and computational physics.