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31 July 2020
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As a public higher-education institution in South Africa with a responsibility to contribute to public discourse, the University of the Free State (UFS) will be presenting the 3rd UFS Thought-Leader Series in collaboration with Vrye Weekblad as part of the Vrystaat Literature Festival’s online initiative, VrySpraak-digitaal.
This year, higher-education institutions
globally are placed in the challenging context of COVID-19. Aware and grounded in the reality that the world will not return to the normality of pre-COVID-19, our responsibility as scholars still remains to contribute to public discourse and to offer
innovative solutions that will impact the lives of people nationally and globally in order to help them understand and adapt to a new world order.
Against this background and context, this year’s debates focus on ‘Post-COVID-19, Post-Crisis’,
with Health and Modelling, Politics, Economy, and Predictions for 2021 as the sub-themes. Placed in a COVID-19 context, and in lieu of the Vrystaat Arts Festival,
the series will be presented virtually in the form of one webinar per month during the period August 2020 to November 2020.
Date: 13 August 2020
Topic: Health
and Modelling
Time: 11:30-13:00
RSVP: Alicia Pienaar, pienaaran1@ufs.ac.za
Facilitator:
Max du Preez
Editor: Vrye Weekblad
Biography
Introduction and welcome:
Prof Francis Petersen
Rector and Vice-Chancellor, UFS
Panellists:
Prof Salim Abdool Karim
Director: Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)
Chair: South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19
Biography
Prof Glenda Gray
President and CEO: South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC)
Biography
Prof Felicity Burt
NRF-DST South African Research Chair in vector-borne and zoonotic pathogens research
Biography
Wayde one of the Adidas faces for Rio 2016
2015-11-20
Wayde van Niekerk has not only been nominated for two awards at the SA Sports Awards. He will also be one of the Adidas world ambassadors for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Photo: Johan Roux |
Wayde van Niekerk’s face may already adorn billboards at Pellies Park on the Bloemfontein Campus and other places around the University of the Free State, but it will now also be used for marketing campaigns worldwide.
The Kovsie athlete will be one of the Adidas world ambassadors for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Adidas is sponsoring him.
According to a modest Van Niekerk, he has been with the clothing sponsor since 2010, and it is a great honour to be an ambassador for the Olympics in Rio
Other awards
After a dream year, being an Adidas ambassador is the latest honour to come his way.
He was also nominated for two awards in the SA Sports Awards, which will be held in the Sand du Plessis Theatre in Bloemfontein on Sunday 22 November 2015. He was nominated as Sportsman of the Year and in the People’s Choice category.
On 21 October 2015, Van Niekerk was named KovsieSport’s Sportsman of the Year for a third consecutive year.
He was recently also honoured at the Free State Schools Athletics Association’s Gold Medal event.
A world superstar
Van Niekerk says it’s good to be part of the legacy Adidas is building as a company.
“It is exciting for me, knowing that I am selected among such great athletes (being an Adidas ambassador), and not just South African athletes, but world athletes,” he says.
“It is the likes of the top Adidas athletes that are going to represent the company and be ambassadors for the company.”
“It is something I am looking forward to – being on posters and seeing my face on billboards and advertisements.”