Professor Thavendran Govender earned his BSc degree in Chemistry in 1998 and then BSc (Hons) in 1999 at UKZN. He received his MSc degree in Synthetic Chemistry in 2000 from UKZN while being based at the University of North Texas, USA. In 2001 he joined the doctoral program in Synthetic Chemistry at UKZN. Govender then completed a successful postdoctoral stint in Medicinal Chemistry at Uppsala University, Sweden. Govender has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards including from the American Chemical Society Postgrad Competition and a Wenner-Gren Postdoctoral Scholarship. He is currently the recipient of a Research Professor Post at UKZN. Govender is currently Head of the Catalysis and Peptide Research Unit at UKZN. This Unit comprises of researchers from USA, Spain, Sweden, Brazil and Australia. These scientists include Professor Albericio (University of Barcelona, Spain and Rector of the University of Yachay, Ecuador) and Professor Arvidsson (Head of Medicinal Research for Karolinska Institute in Stockholm). Govender has published 146 Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) papers thus far in some of the highest ranked journals and has supervised 17 MSc, 6 PhD and 10 Postdocs. He is currently supervising 10 MSc, 8 PhD and 11 Postdocs.

Asymmetric catalysis, peptide chemistry and mass spectrometry