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11 June 2019 | Story Moeketsi Mogotsi | Photo Moeketsi Mogotsi
New KovsieCyberSta
Read to roll: The dynamic duo of Olebogeng Tlhong and Anderson Mosia are always camera ready and they’ll be telling you what is happening on and around campus over the next year. PHOTO: Moeketsi Mogotsi

The search for the 2019/2020 #KovsieCyberSta team has been an exciting one, with Anderson Mosia and Olebogeng Tlhong coming out tops to beat the competition.
Anderson, a second-year BA Languages student, didn’t let last year’s failure deter his efforts to enter again this year. 

“I am hoping to achieve a lot of things. My milestone would be to raise the bar high for the next stars; I've got a lot in store,” he says. 

He says he is passionate about spreading love, and he will use this new platform to express himself.

It has been first-time charm for first-year LLB student, Olebogeng. She says as soon as she saw the competition was open, she knew it was something that would fit her persona. 

“I am hoping to not only grow as an individual, but to leave my mark. The question that I asked myself before stepping into this role, was –what’s going to be different because you stepped in? I aspire to document and present events in the best way that I know, while being open to learning and, through my knowledge, inspire and teach others.”

The 19-year-old says she will use her passion for serving to express herself best over the next 12 months. 

“I believe that it is my duty to use the knowledge I have acquired/am to acquire in order to make somebody else’s life better. So essentially, I am a servant leader; I believe that there is enough room for everybody to succeed,” she adds.

As #KovsieCyberStas, the duo will cover events on and around campus, while filming and presenting short video clips to give fellow Kovsies some insight into these events across the UFS’s digital platforms.



News Archive

UFS extends footprint abroad
2015-12-14

In its constant pursuit of research excellence, the UFS has this year performed well in mainly two areas.

Apart from the research done by the UFS on national level, e.g. the involvement of its researchers with the SKA telescope, the pioneering work they do with the satellite tracking of giraffes, as well as research on trauma, forgiveness and reconciliation – to name but a few of the research areas, the university also has a research focus abroad.

Japan, Europe, America and Botswana. These are just some of the places where academics from the university are involved in research abroad.

Japan

Dr Dirk Opperman, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology, and Carmien Tolmie, a PhD student in the same department, visited the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Onna, Japan, during November and December 2014. During the visit, experiments were performed in the Microbiology and Biochemistry of Secondary Metabolite Unit of Dr Holger Jenke-Kodama.

This formed part of a larger NRF-funded project on carcinogenic toxins produced in certain Aspergillus fungi. These fungi infect food and feedstuff and are a big concern in developing countries because it may lead to severe economic losses. The research ultimately aims to find inhibitors to block the production of these fungal toxins.



Europe and America

In 2012, an international network was established in the frame of the FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IRSES programme, called hERG-related risk assessment of botanicals (hERGscreen). The South African group included Dr Susan Bonnet and Dr Anke Wilhelm, both from the UFS Department of Chemistry.

Extracts from more than 450 South African plant species have been investigated systematically to assess the potential cardiotoxic risk of commonly consumed botanicals and supplements. The idea of the project, funded by the European Commission, is to identify safety liabilities of botanicals.

Other international partners included the University of Innsbruck, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, University of Basel, University of Vienna, University of Florida, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.

Botswana


A memorandum of understanding was signed between the UFS and Botho University in Botswana in September 2015, which will be valid for three years.

The agreement, includes student and staff exchange programmes, collaborative research, teaching and learning and community engagement activities, sharing of results, and PhD/ MPhil guidance.

Young researchers

Another research focus of the UFS is the development of its young researchers. In 2015, the UFS has delivered 13 Y-rated researchers. Ten of the researchers are from the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and three from the Faculty of the Humanities. Three of them received an Y1 rating from the NRF.

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