Prof Makhubela holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town, South Africa (2012). She is currently a Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Research Centre for Synthesis and Catalysis in the Chemical Sciences Department at the University of Johannesburg. 

She previously was a Royal Society-Academy of Sciences (RS-AAS) Future Leaders-Africa Independent Research Fellow (2019 – 2021). 

She presently serves on the Early-Career Editorial Advisory Board of the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry and the Governing Authority of the South African Chemical Industry Education and Training Authority (CHIETA). She previously was in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of the American Chemical Society “Gold” and Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering  Early-Career Advisory Boards  (2020/21 – 2022).

Prof Makhubela has co-authored over 70 peer-reviewed research, review and editorial publications and supervised over 30 Doctoral and Masters students, to completion, since 2015. She has received several national and international scientific awards. These include the: Thieme Chemistry Journals Recognition (2023), National Science and Technology TW Kambule Emerging Researcher Award (2022), South African Women in Science Award (Young Woman Category, 2019), International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)-Chemical Research Addressing World Needs (CHEMRAWN) Prize for Green Chemistry (2020) and the Unesco-PhosAgro Green Chemistry for Life Award (2021).

–University of Johannesburg