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23 July 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo Barend Nagel
Dr Musawenkosi Saurombe and Innocensia Mangoato
Dr Musawenkosi Saurombe and Innocensia Mangoato: 2 of 200 Young South Africans honoured by the Mail & Guardian.
The one is Africa’s youngest PhD graduate. The other made waves with her research into cannabis as a cancer treatment. Dr Musawenkosi Saurombe and Innocensia Mangoato are both lecturers at the University of the Free State (UFS). Now they also share the title of 2019 Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans. Dr Saurombe is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Industrial Psychology and Innocensia Mangoato is a lecturer in the Department of Pharmacology.

For the past 13 years the award has been a career launch pad for many leaders. These Kovsies are however already “on course to touch the world with their greatness”, in the words of the Mail & Guardian. 

In Dr Saurombe’s case, this honour comes after being named the 2018/19 Youth Leader of the Year by the Institute of People Management for being Africa’s youngest PhD graduate and contributing significantly to the talent management field. On the other hand, Mangoato earned the 2018 South African Women in Science Award for her research on using cannabis in cancer treatment
 
A mark of distinction

On 27 June 2019 Dr Saurombe’s name lit up the screen as the Education category winner at a gala dinner held in Sandton. Mangoato was recognised as one of the country’s brightest minds in the Science and Technology category.

Mastering science of excelling

Mangoato believes that the science of excelling is taught through living as an example. “The fact that a village girl can be recognised for conducting impactful research that will potentially result in new knowledge production in the area of drug development and using natural products should encourage more young people to achieve greatness regardless of their circumstances.”

The Pharmacology lecturer and researcher remains persistent in pursuit of her PhD and ground-breaking research in cancer-drug resistance. 

Youngest PhD graduate in Africa

At four years old, a young Dr Saurombe started school in Botswana. She was promoted past a few grades due to being more advanced than her peers. This led her to complete high school at 15 and enrol at North-West University as a first-year student the following year.

In 2017, she was celebrated across the continent as being the youngest PhD graduate at 23. “I registered for my PhD without knowing where I’d get the money to fund my studies,” said Dr Saurombe reflecting on how financial constraints encouraged her to complete her PhD in one-and-a-half years. 

Dr Saurombe joined the UFS earlier this year as a senior lecturer in Industrial Psychology and continues her research into the relationship between employer and employee focusing on talent value proposition.


News Archive

New publication on groundwater remediation soon to be introduced
2017-05-05

Description: Prof Abdon Atangana groundwater remediation Tags: Prof Abdon Atangana groundwater remediation

A new book from Prof Abdon Atangana from
the UFS Institute for Groundwater Studies
proposes new techniques for groundwater
remediation, including guidelines on how chemical
companies can be positioned in any city to avoid
groundwater pollution.
Photo: Pixabay

A new publication, Fractional Operators with Constant and Variable Order with Application to Geo-Hydrology, will be published later this year, on 1 November 2017. The author, Prof Abdon Atangana, from the Institute of Groundwater Studies at the University of the Free State, said the book proposes new techniques for groundwater remediation, including guidelines on how chemical companies can be positioned in any city to avoid groundwater pollution.

Focus of the book
Prof Atangana said researchers and practitioners interested in groundwater modelling and remediation from applied mathematical and geo-hydrology backgrounds, will benefit from reading this book.

According to Elsevier, the book provides a physical review of fractional operators, fractional variable order operators, and uncertain derivatives to groundwater flow and environmental remediation. It presents a formal set of mathematical equations for the description of groundwater flow and pollution problems using the concept of non-integer order derivative. Both advantages and disadvantages of models with fractional operators are discussed.

“Researchers and practitioners
interested in groundwater modelling
and remediation from applied
mathematician and geo-hydrology
backgrounds, will benefit from
reading this book.”

About the author
Prof Atangana specialises in applied mathematics, groundwater modelling, fractional calculus and their applications, methods for partial differential equations, methods for ordinary differential equations, iterations methods, asymptotic methods, perturbations methods, and numerical method for fractional differential equations, uncertainties analysis. He has participated in 18 international conferences, organised six special sections and symposiums in international conference in Europe, Africa, Asia and USA, and has been invited as plenary speaker in eight international conferences. He also serves as editor on 20 international journal of mathematics and applied mathematics and editor-in-chief of two international journals of applied mathematics.

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