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The Department of Business Management within the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences is one of four successful recipients of the Nurturing Emerging Scholars Programme (NESP), which aims to recruit honours graduates who demonstrate academic ability and express an early interest in the possibility of an academic career. 

 “The NESP is a mechanism that addresses a potential shortcoming in the department in the medium to long term. Most of the academics in the department specialise either in entrepreneurship or marketing. As such, the availability of academics with interdisciplinary business knowledge who can teach and do research across the different sub-fields of business management is limited,” says Prof Brownhilder Neneh, Associate Professor in the Department of Business Management.

Once graduates enter the programme – as NESP master’s graduates they form part of a resource pool from which new academics can be recruited. 

Prof Neneh continues: “Considering the imminent retirement of academics in the department, the NESP provides an opportunity to recruit an academic who is able to work with experienced academics, gain experience, and ‘prepare’ the person to become an expert across the different fields in the department.”

“This programme would assist in succession planning within the department as well as training individuals within academia,” she says. 

According to Prof Neneh, access to this funding opportunity will further strengthen and expand the path that the department has embarked upon as far as striving for excellence in teaching, research, and community engagement is concerned, thereby contributing to address key societal challenges. “Appointing an NESP candidate would be an ideal opportunity to recruit an academic who will be able to work with the senior staff and gain experience and teaching/research competencies relevant to the 4IR, and ‘prepare’ the person to become the business management expert in the department,” she says.

News Archive

Inaugural lecture focuses on Plant Pathology
2005-08-16

Prof Neal Mc Laren, from the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Plant Pathology, will deliver his inaugural lecture on Wednesday 17 August 2005 at 19:00 in the CR Swart Auditorium on campus.

The topic of the lecture is Beyond the pathogen:  revisited”.

Prof Mc Laren obtained his B Sc, B Sc (Hons) and M Sc (Agric) at the University of Natal and    Ph D (Plant Pathology) from the University of Pretoria.  In 1977 he was appointed as a research technician at the former Department of Agricultural Technical Services, was promoted to professional officer in 1983 and in 1995 to specialist scientist at the Agricultural Research Council.  In 2003 he was appointed as Associate Professor Extraordinary in the Department of Plant Sciences at the UFS and in 2005 as a full-time Professor of Plant Pathology. 

Prof Mc Laren has published 32 papers in accredited scientific journals or refereed proceedings which include two feature articles.  He also has three book chapters to his credit.  He has presented 35 local and 18 international conference papers and has been an invited/keynote speaker on a number of occasions.  He has published 26 popular articles, co-supervised several post-graduate students and been an examiner of a number of dissertations/theses.   He has acted as referee for numerous journal articles and was associate editor for African Plant Protection. In 1998 he received the ARC-President’s Award and in 1999, an award from the Sorghum Producers Organisation of the USA for outstanding research.

Prof Mc Laren’s principle area of interest has been diseases of sorghum with emphasis on ergot, damping-off and seedling blights, root rots and grain molds.  In addition, root rots of maize and more recently, soybean rust have received attention.  He has a particular interest in quantitative epidemiology.  

For any enquiries, please contact Ms Joan Nel at (051) 401-9301.

Media release
Issued by:  Lacea Loader
   Media Representative
   Tel:  (051) 401-2584
   Cell:  083 645 2454
   E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za

16 August 2005
 

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