André de Villiers completed his BSc degree at Stellenbosch University (SU) in 1997, and received the Merck Prize for the best final-year Chemistry student in this year. He subsequently received his BSc (Hons) degree in Chemistry cum laude in 1998, and was awarded the South African Chemical Institute (SACI) James Moir medal. He completed his MSc (cum laude) in 2000 and his PhD in 2004, both under the supervision of Prof. Pat Sandra. This was followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the Pfizer Analytical Research Centre (PARC) at the Ghent University, Belgium (2004-2006). He was subsequently appointed as academic staff member at SU in August 2006, where he has recently been promoted to Professor.

André’s research entails both fundamental studies aimed at pushing the boundaries of the chemical characterisation of complex mixtures using state-of-the-art techniques such as multidimensional liquid- and gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry, as well as their applications, primarily to natural product analysis, with a particular emphasis on wine and phenolic compounds.

André has published 74 papers in leading international peer-reviewed journals. His papers have been cited more than 2200 times in total and his h-index is 31. He was awarded the Csaba Horváth Memorial Award at HPLC 2009 in Dresden, the Chromatographer of the Year award from the South African Chromatographic Society (ChromSA) in 2012, and LCGC’s Emerging Leader in Chromatography Award in 2014. He was included in The Analytical Scientist “Top 40 under 40” list in 2014, and in 2015 was awarded the South African Chemical Institute’s (SACI’s) Raikes Medal. He regularly presents invited lectures at international conferences, and has served as chair of the scientific committees for the 39th SACI National Convention (2008) and ANALITIKA 2010, and as member of the scientific committee for HPLC 2013 in Australia. André currently chairs the Western Cape board of the ChromSA and is an editorial board member of J. Chromatogr. A, Chromatographia and LCGC.