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21 July 2020 | Story Nitha Ramnath | Photo UFS photo archive

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.

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Prof Conradie makes UFS proud with prestigious Chemistry award
2015-03-25

Prof Jeanet Conradie and Dr Karel von Eschwege

Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

Prof Jeanet Conradie, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of the Free State (UFS), has received the Merck Medal for 2014 from the South African Chemistry Institute (SACI), for her paper Redox potentials of ligands and complexes. A DFT approach, S. Afr. J. Chem. 2011, 64, 203-209.

Dr Karel von Eschwege, the co-author of the paper is also from the Department of Chemistry.

The medal is awarded to the senior author of the paper, published in the South African Journal of Chemistry in a specific field of chemistry, that is judged to have made the most significant contribution to the discipline. The award for 2014, covering papers published in the period 2010 to 2013, was in the field of Inorganic Chemistry.

As part of the award, Prof Conradie will deliver the Merck Medal Lecture at the presentation ceremony.

In 2014, Prof Conradie was runner-up in the senior category for Distinguished Women Researchers: Physical and Engineering Science in the Department of Science and Technology’s 2014 Women in Science Awards. The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) also invited her to become a member.

Prof Conradie believes to reach a goal, you have to utilise opportunities that come your way. “Remember, results speak for themselves. Any researcher can prove himself or herself this way. Nothing in life is for free; you need to work very, very hard. This is only possible when you love and enjoy your work,” she said.

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