Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
31 December 2019
|
Story Dr Cindé Greyling
|
Photo Anja Aucamp
Dr Mariana Erasmus, SAENSE Platform Manager, says water remediation is vital for both the ecosystem and industries.
KovsieInnovation at the UFS supports innovative research outputs in various ways – one of which is to protect the intellectual property and to register patents where viable. This is in line with KovsieInnovation’s broader aim to create third-stream income for the university. Patent registration is a complex process and the UFS is proud to have the needed expertise to properly facilitate such an endeavour.
The SAENSE Platform
South Africa is a water-scarce country, with many water hungry industries (such as agriculture and mining). “Industrial processes often contaminate water with heavy metals, harmful chemicals, radioactive waste, and even organic sludge,” Dr Mariana Erasmus, SAENSE Platform Manager, explains.
Hence, water remediation is vital for both the ecosystem and industries. One of the key functions of the SAENSE Platform is to offer water-remedial solutions for the (bio)remediation of nitrates, heavy metals, and salts, among others. The platform’s activities and services are supported by undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers, using Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) funding. TIA is a national public entity that serves as key institutional intervention to bridge the innovation chasm between research and development.
From waste to water
Through the joint effort of two mining companies and the UFS/TIA SAENSE Research Platform, a new treatment for mine drainage (MD) has been developed. This patented B-DAS (Barium – Dispersed Alkaline Substrate) technology effectively treats the major contaminants found in acid, alkaline, or neutral mining wastewater. The aim of the B-DAS system is to provide a passive water-treatment solution with minimum waste production; it can also be a potential pre-treatment for reverse osmosis (RO) to lower the requirements of the membranes and therefore potentially reduce the RO cost.
The success of the patent is that it turns unusable water into water that is fit for agricultural purposes at a reduced cost and increased efficiency.
UFS confers honorary doctorate on one of the world’s foremost academics
2012-11-26
 |
|
Prof. Martha Nussbaum
Photo: Supplied
26 November 2012
|
The University of the Free State (UFS) will confer three honorary doctorates at the Summer graduation ceremony on 6 December 2012. One of the world’s foremost philosophers is among those to be honoured. Prof. Martha Nussbaum, described by The New York Times as “one of the most prominent female philosophers in America”, will be honoured with a D.Litt. degree in the Faculty of Humanities. Judge F.D.J. Brand, a former Constitutional Court judge, and Prof. Otto Walter Prozesky, one of the country’s foremost medical researchers, will also receive honorary doctorates.
Prof. Nussbaum, who has honorary doctorates from 40 colleges and universities in America, Canada, Asia and Europe, is recognised for her intellectual and public contribution to human development. She is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago and an active member of the American Philosophy Association. Prof. Nussbaum is well-known and respected as a public intellectual and is considered to be one of the most prominent philosophers in the world.
Prof. Prozesky is to be honoured for the important role that he played in the field of medical research, especially as the President of the Medical Research Council and as researcher/educator in the field of virology and HIV/Aids. He is to receive an honorary degree in Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Judge Brand, Extraordinary Professor in Private Law in the Faculty of Law at the UFS, is to receive a Doctor Legum degree in recognition of his considerable contribution to the legal science. More than 120 of his judgments are reported in South African legal reports. A review of recent South African legal journals (over the past five years) shows that reference is made to his judgments in at least 30 articles and case discussions.
The Summer graduation ceremony will be held in the Callie Human Centre on the Bloemfontein Campus and will take place in two ceremonies. At 10:15, master’s degrees and doctorates will be awarded, and at 15:15 qualifications will be awarded in a combined graduation ceremony of the Faculty of Health Sciences and the School of Open Learning.
- Prof. Martha Nussbaum will lead a conversation with members of the public and the campus community on 7 December 2012. On 8 December 2012, she is the main speaker at the UFS’s conference on “Engaging the Other: Empathy and Breaking Transgenerational Cycles of Repetition” on the Bloemfontein Campus.