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Johann Rossouw: “The soul of academy is at stake”

22 March 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Stephen Collett

Prof Johann Rossouw Inaugural lecture — Prof Heidi Hudson, Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities; Prof Fani de Beer, Prof Rossouw’s mentor; Prof Johann Rossouw; and Dr Engela van Staden, Vice-Rector: Academic.

For Prof Johann Rossouw from the Department of Philosophy, the Naval Hill Planetarium – a digital planetarium on a hill in the centre of a modern city, was the perfect place to deliver his inaugural lecture titled, The soul of the academy.

The message of his inaugural lecture was on “the form adopted by the contemporary university, which is so focused on the quantitative that the qualitative is neglected. The focus on training is so strong that the university no longer pays attention to the education of students”.

Prof Rossouw referred to the soul of the academy as the highest in humanity, especially the part which cannot be counted. He also referred to the words of Blaise Pascal in the 17th century: “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing”.

“Do we understand any of this in the contemporary university? And do we still remember the earliest origins from which the academy originated; that Philosophy is the mother discipline of all other disciplines, and how all contemporary disciplines form part of a bigger, coherent entity?” he asked.

The inaugural lecture took place on 28 February 2019. Prof Rossouw has a C2-rating from the National Research Foundation, and it is thanks to him, among other things, that the Department of Philosophy is the only South African Philosophy department with modernity studies as its main focus.

At the end of 2018, he was promoted to Professor of Philosophy at the University of the Free State (UFS), and currently he serves as acting Head of Department. “Due to Prof Rossouw’s involvement, among other things, research on African philosophy, critical theory, postcolonial thinking, and tradition and modernity is conducted in the department,” Prof Heidi Hudson (Dean: the Humanities) said.

Prof Rossouw started his formal training in Philosophy at the age of 12, and in 1991 he obtained a BA degree majoring in Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Pretoria, with distinction. He obtained his MA degree, a critical study of apartheid on the basis of Michel Foucault’s thinking, at Unisa in 1998. In 2002, he obtained his DEA in Philosophy at the University of Lyon 3 under the leadership of Régis Debray, and in 2013 his PHD on the theological trail in Bernard Stiegler’s thinking at Monsh University (Melbourne), under Michael Janover.

In 2016, he won a prize from the South African Academy for Science and Culture for one of the best Afrikaans humanity articles published in 2015.

News Archive

Mathematical methods used to detect and classify breast cancer masses

2016-08-10

Description: Breast lesions Tags: Breast lesions

Examples of Acho’s breast mass
segmentation identification

Breast cancer is the leading cause of female mortality in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the low survival rates in developing countries are mainly due to the lack of early detection and adequate diagnosis programs.

Seeing the picture more clearly

Susan Acho from the University of the Free State’s Department of Medical Physics, breast cancer research focuses on using mathematical methods to delineate and classify breast masses. Advancements in medical research have led to remarkable progress in breast cancer detection, however, according to Acho, the methods of diagnosis currently available commercially, lack a detailed finesse in accurately identifying the boundaries of breast mass lesions.

Inspiration drawn from pioneer

Drawing inspiration from the Mammography Computer Aided Diagnosis Development and Implementation (CAADI) project, which was the brainchild Prof William Rae, Head of the department of Medical Physics, Acho’s MMedSc thesis titled ‘Segmentation and Quantitative Characterisation of Breast Masses Imaged using Digital Mammography’ investigates classical segmentation algorithms, texture features and classification of breast masses in mammography. It is a rare research topic in South Africa.

Characterisation of breast masses, involves delineating and analysing the breast mass region on a mammogram in order to determine its shape, margin and texture composition. Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) program detects the outline of the mass lesion, and uses this information together with its texture features to determine the clinical traits of the mass. CAD programs mark suspicious areas for second look or areas on a mammogram that the radiologist might have overlooked. It can act as an independent double reader of a mammogram in institutions where there is a shortage of trained mammogram readers.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies among females in South Africa. “The challenge is being able to apply these mathematical methods in the medical field to help find solutions to specific medical problems, and that’s what I hope my research will do,” she says.

By using mathematics, physics and digital imaging to understand breast masses on mammograms, her research bridges the gap between these fields to provide algorithms which are applicable in medical image interpretation.

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