Kobus Van Zyl

Kobus van Zyl obtained bachelor's and master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Johannesburg in 1990 and 1993 respectively. After a few years in engineering practice, he joined the University of Johannesburg as a lecturer. He was awarded a Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholarship for a PhD on hydraulic modelling and optimisation of water distribution systems at the University of Exeter (1998 - 2001) under Dragan Savic.

Kobus served as Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering Science and held the Rand Water Chair in Water Utilisation at the University of Johannesburg. He joined the University of Cape Town in 2009 where he served as Assistant Dean for Academic Development in Engineering and deputy Head of Department. He joined the University of Auckland in 2019 as the Watercare Chair for Infrastructure.

Kobus is a Chartered Engineer, an Associate Editor of the ASCE Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management and a member of the Editorial Board of the Urban Water Journal. He is the Past-chair of the ASCE Environmental and Water Resources Institute’s standing committee on Water Distribution Systems Analysis.

Kobus’s research has focused on water distribution systems, including hydraulic network theory, reliability of bulk supply systems, water demand modelling, water metering, the behaviour of pipe leaks and soil-leak interaction. In his role as Watercare Chair for Infrastructure, he works closely with Watercare and other infrastructure service providers to facilitate collaborative and transdisciplinary research on infrastructure.

Kobus's research on leakage was noted as one of the “top five research works in the past few decades in water distribution planning and management” in an editorial by Dr Tom Walski [1] in the ASCE Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. In addition, Allan Lambert [2], the doyen of leakage management practice, stated in a 2013 conference paper: “The principal theoretical advance in understanding of pressure - leak flow rate relationships since 2005 has been the development by the University of Johannesburg and the Cape Town University group of the concept of Leakage Numbers to explain variations in the FAVAD N1 exponent for different types of cracks in pipe.”

Kobus loves teaching and is the main developer of the Aqualibrium Water Competition, a physical pipe network challenge used for outreach and teaching at 40 universities and numerous schools around the world.

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

• ASCE Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 2020 Best Associate Editor Award
• Conference Chair, 10th International Water Distribution System Analysis Conference (WDSA 2008), Kruger National Park, South Africa, 17-20 August 2008
• Profiled in the ASCE Water Distribution System Analysis history project.
• Finalist, National Science and Technology Forum BHP Billiton Awards: Outstanding Contribution to SETI Through Communication for Outreach and Creating Awareness, 2013 and 2014
• Best Poster Prize, Water Institute of Southern Africa Biannual Congress, 2008
• Best Poster Prize, Water Institute of Southern Africa Biannual Congress, 2006
• Award for the Best Paper in 2003, Journal SAICE
• Award for the Best Paper in 1997, Journal SAICE
• British Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholarship for Ph.D. studies in the UK, 1998-2001
• Award for Excellence in Civil Engineering: Community Projects, SAICE, 1995

DEGREES

• Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, Water distribution systems
  University of Exeter, UK1 Sep 1998 - 31 Aug 2001
• M.Ing. (Civil)
  University of Johannesburg, South Africa1 Apr 1991 - 1 May 1993
• B.Ing. (Civil)
  University of Johannesburg, South Africa1 Jan 1987 - 31 Dec 1991
• Diploma in Scientific Computing
  University of Johannesburg, South Africa1 Jan 1997 - 31 Dec 1998