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Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences Dean’s Medal winners

09 October 2020 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath

EMS graduation — Jan Johannes van Niekerk and Pierré Ludwig Koekemoer

This year, two proud recipients of the Dean’s Medal were honoured during the 2020 UFS Virtual Graduation Ceremony. Jan Johannes van Niekerk received the award for the best results in respect of a Bachelor’s Degree in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (Bachelor of Accounting), and Pierré Ludwig Koekemoer was awarded the medal for the student who achieved the best results in respect of a Bachelor Honours Degree in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (Bachelor of Commerce Honours with specialisation in Marketing).

Jan Johannes van Niekerk

Prior to commencing his studies at the UFS, Van Niekerk attended Fichardt Park High School in Bloemfontein. Van Niekerk describes his time thus far as a student in the School of Accountancy as “nothing less than special”. He adds that “… the support from the lecturers is really great … every lecturer has always tried to help me to the best of their ability!”

His favourite subject is Financial Accounting, and his Financial Accounting lecturers inspired him to follow in their footsteps; accordingly, he became a Financial Accounting tutor in his second and third years of study. “As academic staff, we have come to know Johan as a pleasant and well-mannered, diligent, and hardworking student who pays attention to detail,” says Prof Frans Prinsloo, Director: School of Accountancy.

Johan is completing his BAcc Honours studies this year and will commence his training contract with Enslins Auditors in 2021 to qualify as a chartered accountant (SA).

Pierré Ludwig Koekemoer
“Pierré Koekemoer is one of the most decent young men I’ve met in years. Hardworking, diligent, and one of the most respectful and responsible people I know,” says Prof Brownhilder Neneh, Associate Professor in the Department of Business Management.

Pierre Koekemoer was identified as the Best Honours Student for 2019 in the School of Accountancy, as well as the student with the best Honours script. Koekemoer excelled during his Honours year, and successfully managed his responsibilities as student assistant/marker; he was also part of the City Lodge Marketing project that took place during the second semester.

The General Manager of the Fairview Hotel in Nairobi, Kenia, offered Koekemoer a short internship at the beginning of 2020, as he was impressed with his performance. Koekemoer could not accept the job, as he had obtained permanent employment and did not want to lose the position. “This also speaks of his integrity, as he had already committed to the company,” comments Prof Neneh.

News Archive

Death may come in adorable little packages

2015-03-23

The main host of the Lassa virus is the Natal Mulimammate mouse.

Photo: Supplied

Postdoctoral researcher, Abdon Atangana, of the Institute for Groundwater Studies at the university recently published an article online about the Lassa Haemorrhagic fever in the Natural Computing Applications Forum. In addition to the terminal transmissible sickness recognised as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, there is another strain called Lassa haemorrhagic fever.

The disease is classified under the arenaviridae virus family. The first outbreaks of the disease were observed in Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Central African Republic. However, it was first described in 1969 in the town of Lassa, in Borno State, Nigeria.

The main host of the Lassa virus is the Natal Mulimammate mouse, an animal indigenous to most of Sub-Saharan Africa. The contamination in humans characteristically takes place through exposure to animal excrement through the respiratory or gastrointestinal tracts.

Mouthfuls of air containing tiny particle of infective material are understood to be the most noteworthy way of exposure. It is also possible to acquire the infection through broken skin or mucous membranes that are directly exposed to the infective material.

“The aim of my research was to propose a novel mathematical equation used to describe the spread of the illness amongst pregnant women in West Africa. To achieve this, I used my newly-proposed derivative with fractional order called beta-derivative. Since none of the commonly used integral transform could be used to derive the solution of the proposed model, I proposed a new integral transform called Atangana-Transform, and used it, together with some iterative technique, to derive the solution of the model.

“My numerical simulations show that the disease is as deadly amongst pregnant women as Ebola,” Abdon said.

Abdon’s research was submitted to one of Springer’s top-tier journals with an impact factor 1.78. The paper was accepted and published February 2015.