Nelson Torto is a Permanent Secretary, in the Ministry of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology in Botswana. He is a former Executive Director of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), a pan African organisation headquartered in Kenya, which aims to drive sustainable development in Africa through science technology and innovation.
Torto oversees the mandate of the Ministry and seeks to help the government of Botswana realise a transformed economy through generation and application of knowledge. He has had an illustrious research career, which has seen him publish over 130 papers, graduate 19 PhDs and several MSc students, being cited more than 2000 times since 2012, has an H-index over 30 and successfully filed for patents for his research in material chemistry where his group employed electrospun fibres for various applications.
He is a recipient of several international awards, including the American Chemical Society’s Young Investigators in Separation Science Award, the Award for Collaboration in Analytical Chemistry from the Nigerian Chemical Society, Osuni Chapter and is an internationally recognised speaker. He has also served in various capacities in pan African and international networks and organisations.