Young, driven and rocketing to success

Mthatha-born Harvard University graduate Siyabulela Xuza's proudest moment was when US first lady Michelle Obama compared him to Nelson Mandela.

Obama, praising the 25-year-old scientist's research, also said he was as driven as her husband, President Barack Obama.

Xuza has invented a micro fuel cell that could one day enable cellphones to operate without batteries.

The research for the fuel cell - a tiny chip with higher density than batteries and capable of storing energy for a longer period - is now owned by Harvard University.

"Micro fuel cells will offer a solution to the battery problem," said Xuza, who spent a year - putting in 20-hour days and surviving on protein shakes - working on his invention at the university campus.

"Some people have five years to work on a project like this, [but] I had one year and I had to make it work. I think I lost about 15kg in 2012," he said.

Little did Xuza imagine that his work would catch the attention of the US first lady.

In a recent speech, she said Xuza had gone from humble beginnings to developing new technology.

"[Xuza] grew up in the township of Mthatha and his family certainly wasn't wealthy," said Obama.

"But he studied hard in school and, as a teenager, he invented his own rocket fuel and won all kinds of awards. He just graduated from Harvard University, where he's been developing new energy technologies to power Africa and save our planet.

"You see, Siya and President Obama and so many others in South Africa and the United States are living proof of what the legendary South African president, Nelson Mandela, once said: 'Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.'"

This week, Xuza said he would never forget the excitement as he listened to the speech.

"My knees locked and I was breathless when Michelle Obama mentioned me in the same sentence as the US president and Nelson Mandela. She is so humble and so supportive of my career.

"During a private talk we had, she encouraged me to come back to South Africa and contribute to the growth of our country," he said.

Since then, Xuza has met the US first lady on three occasions.

He got hooked on science at the age of five, when, standing in his family's rural homestead near Mthatha in 1994, he saw a light aircraft for the first time. It was dropping election leaflets.

Intrigued by aviation and science, he built his own rocket after watching Mark Shuttleworth's space flight in 2002 - but it exploded on the launch pad. His next attempt, a year later, broke the national amateur altitude record, reaching nearly 1000m.

Xuza won a scholarship to St John's College in Johannesburg and, later, a Harvard scholarship. While studying energy engineering at the university, Xuza decided to investigate an alternative way of storing energy for cellphones.

Scientists and engineers worldwide were already developing better-performing batteries for smartphones.

"I realised that storage and not the generation of energy is where the biggest opportunity lies, and I thought that is where I needed to put in the most innovation," he said.

After five years in the US, Xuza returned last year with a "passion for developing solutions for the energy industry".

He said his youth and the patience of his mother, Zanele, had helped him to achieve success.

"While growing up I was a pain, because I was always curious, breaking things apart and putting them back together. I was just restless.

"I never saw myself as academically talented. I didn't even know what science was until much later. I learnt by explosions and not by theory," he said.

His family moved from Mthatha to Johannesburg in 1997. "Every day after school, I knew I had my mom's kitchen to experiment in ... I just wanted to build my own rocket. I wasn't able to get fuel. I used what was in the kitchen. At first I didn't know what I was doing. I used sugar and got chemicals from the pharmacy.

"My story is not of being a lone genius - it is a story of multiple failures," he said. "I peaked late in my school career. I worked incredibly hard - I'm not a natural-born genius."

Xuza's mother said he had been a normal "playful, naughty" child.

"When he started working on his rocket project, mixing his chemicals, I chased him out of the kitchen. Later, I realised he was onto something."

Zanele said the family was "extremely" proud of Xuza. "He is a role model for the rest of his family, both young and old."

She said her proudest moment was seeing him graduate from Harvard last year. "I just broke down ... it was very emotional for me."

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