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26 November 2018 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Barend Nagel
Book Launch read more
Peace Leadership: Self-Transformation to Peace is about a kind of leadership that puts peace first.
A young democracy such as South Africa is defined by a desire for better relationships, interconnectedness, inclusivity, cohesion, justice and a shared understanding. 
Peace Leadership: Self-Transformation to Peace offers a practical framework for all leaders, as well as for the average person on the street, on how to achieve this aspiration. 

A desire for peace

“It is every human’s desire to experience peace and to facilitate that peacefulness we need peace leaders.” The book offers strategies which leaders can apply to maintain and restore peace in conflict-ridden regions such as Bosnia, according to Martha Harunavamwe of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Industrial Psychology, who contributed two chapters to the book. The text also offers peace strategies to communities outside conflict-ridden regions. 

The written work explores ways in which the 21st century leader has the power to influence a nation towards or away from peace, the possibilities of restoring relationships, as well as how social systems can be tailored in the best interest of citizens for the purpose of conflict resolution.

The building blocks

Peace Leadership: Self-Transformation to Peace is built upon a three-phase foundation. “Moving through different phases, leading self, leading with others and leading your community will enhance self-transformation to the creation of peace.” 

Through cycles of action, reflection, learning and adaptation, peace leaders will improve on efforts to obtain peace,” said one of the editors and author of seven chapters, Prof Ebben Van Zyl. These building blocks model a more civilised and flourishing world in which the financial, political, health and education, human security, and legal needs of the community are served, thus creating a peaceful society.

Prof Van Zyl who is also from the Department of Industrial Psychology, edited the book, with Dr Andrew Campbell of the International Peace and Leadership Institute in the US.

Leaders are in the eye of the beholder

Two chapters of the book were written from a governance perspective. In her contribution, Prof Liezel Lues of the UFS Department of Public Administration states that there are large communities of peace leaders, considering they encompass all those who contribute towards nation-building, be they politicians, singers, actors, or business owners.

The importance of peace leaders should never be underestimated. If anything, scholar-practitioners, educators, academics, researchers, leadership development fraternities, peace organisations, negotiators, think-tanks, the diplomatic corps, government institutions, non-governmental organisations, consultants or advisors, security companies, the private sector and trade unions, should strive to become fluent in the concepts advocated for in Peace Leadership: Self-Transformation to Peace.

News Archive

Nobel Prize-winner presents first lecture at Vice-Chancellor’s prestige lecture series
2017-11-17


 Description: Prof Levitt visit Tags: Prof Levitt visit

At the first lecture in the UFS Vice Chancellor’s Prestige Lecture series,
were from the left: Prof Jeanette Conradie, UFS Department of Chemistry;
Prof Michael Levitt, Nobel Prize-winner in Chemistry, biophysicist and
professor in structural biology at Stanford University; Prof Francis Petersen,
UFS Vice-Chancellor and Rector; and Prof Corli Witthuhn,
UFS Vice-Rector: Research. 
Photo: Johan Roux

South African born biophysicist and Nobel Prize-winner in Chemistry, Prof Michael Levitt, paid a visit to the University of the Free Sate (UFS) as part of the Academy of Science of South Africa’s (ASSAf) Distinguished Visiting Scholars’ Programme. 

Early this week the professor in structural biology at Stanford University in the US presented a captivating lecture on the Bloemfontein Campus on his lifetime’s work that earned him the Nobel Prize in 2013. His lecture launched the UFS Vice-Chancellor’s Prestige Lecture series, aimed at knowledge sharing within, and beyond our university boundaries. 

Prof Levitt was one of the first researchers to conduct molecular dynamics simulations of DNA and proteins and developed the first software for this purpose. He received the prize for Chemistry, together with Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel, “for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems”.

Attending the lecture were members of UFS management, academic staff from a range of faculties and other universities as well as young researchers. “Multiscale modelling is very much based on something that makes common sense,” Prof Levitt explained. “And that is to makes things as simple as possible, but not simpler. Everything needs to have the right level of simplicity, that is not too simple, but not too complicated.”  

An incredible mind
Prof Levitt enrolled for applied mathematics at the University of Pretoria at the age of 15. He visited his uncle and aunt in London after his first-year exams, and decided to stay on because they had a television, he claims. A series on molecular biology broadcast on BBC, sparked an interest that would lead Prof Levitt via Israel, and Cambridge, to the Nobel Prize stage – all of which turned out to be vital building blocks for his research career. 

Technology to the rescue
The first small protein model that Prof Levitt built was the size of a room. But that exercise led to the birth of multiscale modelling of macromolecules. For the man on the street, that translates to computerised models used to simulate protein action, and reaction. With some adaptations, the effect of medication can be simulated on human protein in a virtual world. 

“I was lucky to stand on the shoulder of giants,” he says about his accomplishments, and urges the young to be good and kind. “Be passionate about what you do, be persistent, and be original,” he advised.  

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