Gideon Botes started his academic studies in chemical engineering at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and finally obtained a PhD in chemical engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. He joined Sasol Technology, R&D Division in 1996 and has spent the most of his career researching various catalytic- and process-related aspects of the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis, with a special interest in kinetic and selectivity modeling. In 2009, he moved to the Intellectual Property Group of Sasol Technology where he is still working as a technical advisor in the Fischer–Tropsch field.