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04 February 2020 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Charl Devenish
Kovsie Eco vehicle parade
A highlight for first-year and senior students is the ACT eco-vehicle building and parade through the streets of Bloemfontein.

Sunny skies, cheerful faces, and an overall great atmosphere surfed the University of the Free State (UFS) Bloemfontein Campus on Saturday, 1 February 2020 for the final series of events in the Kovsie ACT 2020 line-up.

The eco-vehicle parade kick-started the activities for the day and saw various student teams displaying their personalised pit-stop ‘sculptures’ along the streets of Bloemfontein.  UFS residence teams Sonverlief (Houses Sonnedou, Veritas, Madelief); Soetmarmentum (Houses Soetdoring, Marjolein, Armentum); and Beykasium (Houses Beyers Naudé, Akasia, Imperium) came in first, second, and third respectively, obtaining the highest scores out of nine teams for their pit-stop sculpture constructions. 
 
Following the parade, there were a number of fun but competitive eco-vehicle races between the teams. This included the Drag Race, Obstacle Course Race, Formula E Race, Endurance Race, and the Slalom Course Race that took place on the Mokete Square. 

In the evening, students were serenaded by artists such as Early B and Spoegwolf. They danced to performances from the latest Amapiano music sensation, Kabza de Small, and legendary deep-house music duo, Black Motion, at the Rag Farm. 

Assistant Director of UFS Student Life and Director of the Kovsie ACT office, Karen Scheepers, earlier urged students to get more involved in student-life programmes such as Kovsie ACT, in order to equip themselves with a variety of skills and a fulfilling university experience.

A number of senior and first-year students who were part of the action on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus this past Saturday, can attest to Scheepers’ advice.
“I’ve been looking forward to starting university for the longest time, and I am glad that I ended up at the UFS. I don’t feel alone, I feel like I can actually do this,” said first-year Psychology student, Thulisa Shezi.

“University isn’t as bad as everyone thinks it is, it’s just a matter of staying motivated, doing your work, and surrounding yourself with the right people in the process.” – Fourth-year Business Management student, Earl van der Westhuisen.

News Archive

Yeast genus named after UFS scientist
2012-02-21

 
Prof. Lodewyk Kock

 

A yeast genus has been named Kockiozyma in honour of Prof. Lodewyk Kock of the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology at the University of the Free State for his contributions to yeast systematics.

A genus is a category of classification ranking below a family and above a species and generally consists of a group of species exhibiting similar characteristics.  
 
Prof. Kock says: “This event was a big surprise and honour which is usually only bestowed on scholars at the end of their career.” 
 
The manuscript proposing the new genus name, titled "Kockiozyma gen. nov., for Zygozyma suomiensis: thephylogeny of the Lipomycetaceous yeasts" was accepted for publication on 7 February 2012 by the ISI journal Annals of Microbiology.
 
This genus is a member of the family called the Lipomycetaceae which is regarded as a primitive group of yeasts. This family is usually studied for their evolutionary status and development.
 
The scholars that did the research and bestowed the honour are Dr S. Jindamorakot and Dr P. Yukphan from the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) in Thailand. The senior author was Prof. Y. Yamada, Professor Emeritus at Shizuoka University at the town of Shizuoka in Japan.

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