Prof Wikus van Niekerk is the Dean of Engineering and the Pro-Vice Chancellor Institutional Efficience at Stellenbosch University.  He holds a PhD from the University of California at Berkeley and an Executive MBA from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town. 

He completed his PhD on the active control of transient noise transmission in 1994.  After holding the Sasol Chair in Vehicle Engineering at the University of Pretoria he moved to Stellenbosch University in January 2000.  At Stellenbosch he has been Head of the Mechanics Division, Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Institute for Thermodynamics and Mechanics.  He was the founding Director of the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies and played a leading role to establish research, education and training programmes in renewable energy and influence funding and policy priorities on the national level.  He has a keen interest in solar energy and the energy transition.  As Dean of the Faculty of Engineering he is responsible for six ECSA accredited engineering programmes with 3 500 undergraduate and 1 500 postgraduate students.  As Pro-VC Institutional Efficiency he advises the Rector and Vice Chancellor as well as the COO on various matters pertaining to improving the efficiency of the University's processes and systems.

Prof van Niekerk is a Registered Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of South African and has been practising as a consultant to industry for 30 years. He is regularly consulted by industry on a variety of areas including renewable energy systems and technology; solar, wind and ocean energy; and energy policy and research strategy.  He has published more than 36 articles in refereed international journals and presented a number of papers at international conferences.

Prof Van Niekerk is an Honorary Fellow of the South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering and a Fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering.  He is a member of the ASME and SESSA, and a Board Member of the Fraunhofer Chile Research Center for Solar Energy Technologies.  He was also a Senior Advisor of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft in Africa.

In 2014 Prof Van Niekerk received the SANEA Energy Award.