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12 February 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Rulanzen Martin
Prof Angelique van Niekerk and CP Naude
Charl-Pierre Naudé with Prof Angelique van Niekerk after launch and discussion of his book.

Die Ongelooflike Onskuld van Dirkie Verwey is the debut novel by Charl-Pierre Naudé, research fellow in the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Naudé has published four volumes of poetry and is a poet by profession. Die Ongelooflike Onskuld van Dirkie Verwey is his first leap from poetry to prose. He is also a former winner of the Ingrid Jonker Prize for poetry.

The book, published by Tafelberg, was launched on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus on Thursday 30 January 2019 where Naudé was in conversation with Dr Francois Smit, also from the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French, during which the two of them attempted to analyse the world of the main characters; however, Naudé did not want to give away too much. ”I think people should read the book,” he said.

Spiritual and physical worlds

 

“The novel is a first-person narrative told by one of the characters. I wanted to play a certain bluff to determine exactly who the author of this book was,” said Naudé. The book is not totally explicable. “I wanted the reader to feel that it is not absolutely true.”

''The book seeks to combine the spiritual and physical worlds,” said Naudé. Die Ongelooflike Onskuld van Dirkie Verwey is essentially a love story in which the two worlds merge, but nonetheless never mix.

 

Creative writing course revived

 

“The book is Charl-Pierre’s creative output which forms part of his creative writing course,” said Head of Department, Prof Angelique van Niekerk. This is the first book published after the revival of the creative writing course at the UFS in 2015 – and what a book to kick off with!

“It is of great importance for our department to have been part of this book,” Dr Smith said.

Read here the article published in Huisgenoot.

News Archive

Harvard couple to present lectures on Biostatistics and Mathematics at the UFS
2015-12-07


Professor Donald Rubin

Prof Donald Rubin (John L. Loeb Professor of Statistics at Harvard University) and Elizabeth Zell (MStat - mathematical statistician in the Division of Bacterial Diseases) will visit the University of the Free State (UFS) where they will present lectures on their respective work.

Over his prestigious academic career, Prof Don Rubin’s 400 publications and 13 books have earned him around 180 000 citations at an h-index of 113. He is one of the most cited statisticians/mathematicians/economists/psychologists in the world over the last 10 -15 years. He has supervised 35 PhD candidates as sole-supervisor, 17 more as co-supervisor, with a further eight in the pipeline.

Prof Rubin who will meet with UFS academics in the Department of Mathematics and Actuarial Sciences will also deliver a lecture: Rerandomisation to improve covariate balance in experiments.

Randomised experiments are the “gold standard” for estimating causal effects, yet in practice, chance imbalances often exist in covariate distributions between treatment groups. If covariate data are available before units are exposed to treatments, these chance imbalances can be mitigated by first checking covariate balance before the physical experiment takes place. Provided a precise definition of imbalance has been specified in advance, unbalanced randomisations can be discarded, followed by a rerandomisation. This process can continue until a randomisation yielding balance according to the definition is achieved. By improving covariate balance, rerandomisation provides more precise and trustworthy estimates of treatment effects.

Prof Rubin received an honorary professorship from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS.


Elizabeth Zell

The lecture will take place on:
Date: Tuesday 8 December 2015
Time: 16:00
Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, Bloemfontein Campus

Zell earned her Master’s degree in Statistics at North Carolina State University, and for more than two decades, was an active bio-statistical researcher in various offices of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Since 2013, she has been the Principal Statistician and President of Stat-Epi Associates, Inc. Her 150+ publications have earned her 14 500 citations at an h-index of over 50. She is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, and, in 2010, she received the Statistics Section Government Award for outstanding contributions to statistics and public health by the American Public Health Association. During her career at the CDC, she earned more than 20 CDC research awards and honours.

She will deliver two lectures at the UFS. The first is entitled A Potential Outcomes Approach to Documenting the Public Health Impact of the Introduction of PCV13 for the Prevention of Invasive Pneumococcal Disease. The topic of her second lecture is: Assessing the Effectiveness of Intrapartum Antibiotic Prophylaxis for Prevention of Early-Onset Group B Streptococcus Disease through Propensity Score Design

Elizabeth’s lectures will take place on:
Date: Wednesday 9 December 2015
Time: 10:45 and 13:00
Venue: West Block 111, Bloemfontein Campus

For more information, please contact Dr Michael von Maltitz at VMaltitzMJ@ufs.ac.za.

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