Women's Month 2023 - Be Better































#UFSWomen Strive to Be Better

The University of the Free State has a clear vision of where it wants to be within the next few years leading up to the year 2034, when the university will be 130 years old. This strategy is encapsulated in its Vision 130, which expresses its intent and commitment to be acknowledged by peers and society as a top-tier university in South Africa, ranked among the best in the world.

The university is focused on consistently renewing and reimagining itself to ensure that it impactfully supports societal development. It does this by preparing globally competitive graduates who understand the local context, with appropriate attributes, skills, and knowledge to enable them to stand out, enter the economy, shape society, and become good citizens and future leaders.

An important part of its strategy to achieve this, is to develop and invest in academic programme offerings of the highest quality that are sustainable and provide 21st century graduates with meaningful pathways to personal and regional development. Integral to the success of the Academic Project is the consistent improvement of its research productivity and expanding the number of leading researchers, with distinctive research areas that are continuously developing.

The university is proud of the achievements of its women scholars who have distinguished themselves in UFS programmes aimed at transforming the institution’s academic leadership and growing industry engagement.

Transformation of the Professoriate Mentoring Programme

This programme aims to grow a critical mass of excellent emerging scholars at the UFS who are equipped to assume senior academic and research positions through significant contributions to knowledge in their disciplines, and increased impact in the broader societal context. A combination of capacity development strategies, peer and professional mentoring, personalised coaching, as well as access to resources are harnessed to achieve academic excellence.

Industry Engagement Mentoring Programme

This programme provides UFS academics who have recently obtained their PhDs with training and guidance on how to engage more effectively with industry partners to ensure that the research and academic outputs of the university are relevant and visible to industry. Candidates work closely with industry mentors to develop an understanding of the industry and how to build sustainable partnerships. The programme also provides opportunities for training in design thinking, development of business plans, grant writing, etc.




Dr Ntsoaki Lucia Meko

Dr Ntsoaki Lucia Meko
Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics


Nutrition information to vulnerable communities

A registered dietician, Dr Meko’s work in community nutrition and community-based education has earned her awards for community engagement and teaching and learning. She is passionate about sharing evidence-based dietary information on various community-based platforms.

Projects that she is spearheading include bridging the communication gap between dietitians and their patients, with a special focus on the Free State province, which entails developing health communication resources that can be used during patient consultation in patients’ preferred languages. She is also involved in providing nutrition education in low-resourced communities in Bloemfontein.

Dr Anke Wilhelm
Senior Lecturer and Divisional Head of Organic Chemistry

Developing novel anti-epileptic drugs

Dr Wilhelm is an NRF Y2-rated synthetic organic chemist who has received training in Switzerland, after which she established a zebrafish larval locomotive bioassay* at the UFS. She collaborates with various high-profile local and international universities and has published 23 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals.

Her research focus is the isolation of active GABAergic compounds using zebrafish larvae as a model against diseases of the central nervous system, mainly epilepsy. In collaboration with the University of Vienna, the GABAergic activity of South African botanicals known for their use in traditional medicine is being investigated, which may lead to novel anti-epileptic drugs with improved efficacy, ease of availability, and reduced cost. 

*assay: process of analysing a substance to determine its composition or quality

Dr Anke Wilhelm


Dr Catherine S Namakula

Dr Catherine S Namakula
Senior Lecturer in Public Law and Convenor of the Africa Reparations Hub

Human rights in the African context

Dr Namakula is a member of the UN Working Group of experts on people of African descent, a member of the editorial board of the African Yearbook on International Humanitarian Law, and she serves on the board of the Africa Judges and Jurists Forum. She has served in several countries including Ghana, South Sudan, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Uganda.

Projects she has been involved in, include: Fair trial language rights in Africa and in international criminal trials – exploring the effect of the dynamic effect of language on criminal justice in domestic and international trials;  Race as an intersectionality in criminal justice – demystifying the significance of racial analyses in determining race-based crimes and cases exhibiting racial connotations; and Africa's Reparations Agenda – offering scholarly leadership and support to the African Union towards Africa's reparation for the enslavement and trade in Africans.




Dr Angélique Lewies
Senior Lecturer in the Robert WM Frater Cardiovascular Research Centre in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery

Preventing premature deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases

Dr Lewies holds a PhD in Pharmaceutics and has a special research interest in finding solutions to cardiotoxicity caused by cancer treatments – working towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of ‘Good Health and Well-being’, by reducing one third of premature deaths from non-communicable diseases. 

She is involved in the development of cardiac organoid models for drug-induced cardiotoxicity biomarker identification. This research could potentially address the problem of irreversible damage on cellular level that can be caused by chemotherapy treatments – which can ultimately lead to cardiac dysfunction – but which remains undetected by traditional monitoring methods.  This project aims to develop a 3D cardiac organoid cell culture model that can be used to identify biomarkers for cardiotoxicity released by cardiac cells and has the potential to prevent premature deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases.

Dr Angélique Lewies




Dr Matshediso Moleko

Dr Matshidiso Moleko

Mathematics Education Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology Education

Advancing mathematical knowledge for teaching

Dr Moleko has been teaching Mathematics Education modules in undergraduate studies and supervising postgraduate students for the past six years. Her significant contribution is evidenced by the high-impact teacher community projects she leads, which are aimed at advancing teachers’ mathematics knowledge for teaching.

Projects she currently leads, include: Universal Design for Learning in Mathematics Classrooms – focusing on Mathematics teacher capacity development / training on inclusion and access for sustainable learning;  South Africa-USA Collaboration for Content and Pedagogy Stimulation in the Foundation Phase – focusing on material development to promote innovative teaching of Mathematics in the foundation phase;  SA-USA Primary Math Teachers Content and Pedagogy Stimulation in the Intermediate Phase – focusing on teacher training to enhance Mathematics knowledge for teaching and content knowledge.




Dr Maréve IM Biljohn
Senior Lecturer and Head of Department Public Administration and Management

Social innovation for improved government service delivery

Dr Biljohn is an NRF-rated researcher who uses the lens of social innovation and transformative social innovation to consider approaches to local government service delivery and citizen participation therein.

She is also part of a research team of women from the UFS and an international partner university, exploring mentorship experiences and expectations, as well as a mentorship support framework for women academics and non-academics at the UFS.

Her current research projects include Transformative social innovation and the local government service delivery system; Social innovation as a framework to lead institutional change for responsive service delivery; and Gamification as a pedagogical approach to teaching Public Administration and Management.

Dr Maréve IM Biljohn




Dr Nthatisi Nyembe

Dr Nthatisi Nyembe

Lecturer, Department of Zoology and Entomology 

Finding treatments for parasitic infections

Dr Nyembe specialises in parasitology, having successfully completed her doctoral degree in Japan in 2018. She is in the process of establishing an in vitro lab at the UFS, which will enable the culturing of parasites such Trypanosoma, Plasmodium, Toxoplasma, and nematodes in a safe, sterile, and controlled environment.

She is currently involved in a project that entails the isolation of adult Haemonchus contortus (nematode worms) from naturally infected sheep. Successful isolation of the worm will provide her research team with the opportunity to study this parasite in detail in order to develop a potential treatment for it.




Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

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