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30 December 2019 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Thabo Kessah

Gavin Dollman is one of the young researchers selected for the international research programme funded through the US-SA Higher Education Network. This prestigious programme is aimed at giving PhD candidates and their supervisors the opportunity to regularly travel to the USA and spend time at participating US universities where their co-promoters will be based.

“The University Staff Doctoral Programme (USDP) has allowed me to bring my idea of collaborative science to fruition. It’s an exciting opportunity,” Dollman said.

Dollman added that his PhD studies would focus on the machine and deep learning for prospecting for palaeontology. He is studying with the Appalachian State University. Other participating universities are Montana and Colorado State.

He has also had the privilege to work alongside a team of Geologists and Paleontologists from the universities of Birmingham, Zurich and Oxford in a project under the auspices of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Evolution Studies Institute (ESI) on a site in rural Eastern Cape.

“My role within this massive project is to perform a detailed survey of the sites and the surrounding area for later analysis. I used a drone known as the DJI Phantom 3 Pro with which I took hundreds of pictures that were later put together to create a detailed map,” he said.

“The maps allowed for virtual prospecting by the team and will in the long term serve as the basis for a predictive fossil model for the area.”

Dollman is a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Informatics on the Qwaqwa Campus.

News Archive

Kovsie student receives national political studies award

2016-10-07

Description: ’Manapo ’Mokose Tags: ’Manapo ’Mokose

’Manapo ’Mokose who was awarded a prize for the best Honours
essay at the 2016 South African Association of Political Studies
(SAAPS) awards.
Photo: Supplied

“The UFS gets so little recognition. I hope that winning this award will attest to its strength as a genuine avenue for student success.”

This was the message from ’Manapo ’Mokose to students at the University of the Free State (UFS) after being awarded a prize for the best Honours essay at the 2016 South African Association of Political Studies (SAAPS) awards.

Mokose in a nutshell

’Mokose, who completed her degree in Political Science and Business Management at UFS went on to pursue an Honours degree in International Relations. The topic of her essay was The BRICS Development Bank in the New World Order: Reflections on Africa and China.

Voicing frustration at how little people engaged with political issues, ’Mokose pointed to the reality that political awareness empowered people to influence their environment.

She was candid about her struggles with self-doubt and shared that to her the award meant she had a clue after all and was certainly on the right track.

UFS support meant the world

According to ’Mokose none of this would have been possible without the love and support she received from the UFS. She gave special recognition to her supervisor Prof Theo Neethling in the Department of Political Studies. “I would not have received this award without him,” she said.

The award ceremony took place on 1 September 2016 in Cape Town.

’Mokose is currently doing her Masters in International Relations at the University of Cape Town and is an intern at the Institute for African Alternatives.

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