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21 August 2019
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Story Thabo Kessah
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Photo Thabo Kessah
Keafon Jumbam is gearing herself for the institutional Three Minute Thesis competition.
Keafon Jumbam is a PhD candidate whose research on food and foxes has won her the first prize of R8 000 in the recent Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences’ Postgraduate Flash Fact Competition. Her brief in the competition was to
summarise her research in three minutes, using only one static slide.“The competition started at departmental level on both campuses. The idea was that the best student in each department is then selected to go for the faculty-level competition on the Bloemfontein Campus. Summarising the entire research into three minutes is no easy feat, but a great way to gauge how well one has mastered your work,” she said.
Far-reaching research
“Thought-provoking presentations on research, ranging from technology to track academic progress, traditional medicine as alternatives to expensive prescriptions, and suggesting insects as food alternatives to curb hunger in this era of severe droughts and food shortages. The competition was tough, but it highlighted the level of research competitiveness on the Qwaqwa Campus. I hope that more students will join in such opportunities to build themselves up and to showcase our research output as Qwaqwa students,” added Jumbam from the
Department of Zoology and Entomology.
Institutional finals
Her next challenge is the institutional competition to be held on 23 August 2019, which could qualify her for the national competition.
Justin J. Kennedy leads new Programme in Personal Excellence
2012-05-08
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Justin J. Kennedy
Photo: Leatitia Pienaar
8 May 2012
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Justin J. Kennedy has been appointed as the Manager of the new Programme in Personal Excellence. The programme is hosted in the Centre for Business Dynamics, the commercial unit of the Business School.
He studied at Rhodes University and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and his research has been published in various health-related publications. His D.Psych. at the University of California migrated into a Ph.D. with research partner DiscoveryHealth.
While in New York, he was part of the research laboratory Helicor that developed the world’s first hand-held medical device for measuring heart-rate variability of the peripheral nervous system. This device forms part of the programmes offered to control stress and improve cognitive performance as per clinical trials at the UCT Department of Human Biology. This programme evolved into developing the M.Sc. course work on occupational stress and Ph.D. student supervision.
The programme will launch during the university's Beneficiary Programme for Academic Heads of Department, and will focus on the neuro-economics of stress resilience.
Justin’s most recent research is peer review for an international leadership journal where he has presented evidence on how people can improve their cognitive performance and working memory by building functional stress resilience. The overall aim of the programme is to not only reduce stress, but to improve ability to be excellent at work. Clinical results have shown it is beneficial for performance anxiety, insomnia, migraine, hypertension control and improved ability at cognitive tasks. The aim of his work is to ensure that simple and practical skills provide academics, students and corporate participants with enduring, functional techniques that are easily applied in their working lives.
The programme has three roles: to offer services that equip students and academics; consulting services to corporate clients, financial groups and private hospitals; and publication of results in peer-reviewed journals.
This initiative also envisages offering a postgraduate qualification and selected coaching qualifications. For more info about corporate interventions and programmes open to students and academics, please contact Ansie Barnard at barnardam@ufs.ac.za.