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Monique Tangah – this year’s winner of UFS ‘3MT’

21 October 2020 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Supplied

Monique Tangah_web read more — Monique Tangah (Economic and Management Sciences Faculty) won the PhD category of UFS Institutional Three-Minute Thesis competition hosted by the Postgraduate School.

Monique Tangah, a postgraduate student from the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS), will represent the university on 13 November 2020 at the National Three-Minute Thesis, also known as the ‘3MT’, competition after she won the UFS competition.

The UFS Postgraduate School hosted its Institutional 3MT on 9 October 2020 and winners chosen from each faculty competed against each other for the UFS Three-Minute Thesis title. Tangah, with her thesis titled, Cameroonian women’s empowerment through higher education: An African-feminist and Capability Approach Analysis, emerged victorious from a total of 20 students who are registered for their PhD and master's degrees. Tensions were high as the participants brought their research products of a very high standard forward in the virtual competition.

Willard Morgan, a student in the Faculty of Education, won the category for the Master’s Degree students with his title, Ideological representations of entrepreneurship in high school economic and management sciences textbooks.

The Three-Minute Thesis competition is an annual competition held at 200 universities across the world. It is open to PhD and master's students and challenges participants to present their research in just 180 seconds – in a way that is understood by an audience with no background in their specific research area.

Universities need to focus on the generation of new knowledge to solve critical problems in the country, continent and globally. The Three-Minute Thesis competition aims to achieve this by encouraging the increase of research output produced by master’s and PhD students.

Winners and runners-up of the UFS competition for 2020 are:

For the PhD category

Winner: Monique Tangah (Economic and Management Sciences Faculty)

1st runner-up: Tamson Foster (Natural and Agricultural Sciences Faculty)

2nd runner-up: Monique Basson (Humanities)

For the Master’s category

Winner: Willard Morgan (Education)

1st runner-up: Kyla Dooley (Natural and Agricultural Sciences Faculty)

2nd runner-up: Bonolo Makhalemele (Natural and Agricultural Sciences Faculty)

The National Three-Minute thesis will be hosted virtually on 13 November 2020. PhD finalists from South African universities will compete for the 3MT SA title. Whose research thesis will stand the test of time? Join to find out.

Date: 13 November 2020

Time: 10:00-13:00

Link: https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/405aa3ff84f54eec81557131b6bc2bfd

For more information, email Reabetswe Mabine at mabiner@ufs.ac.za

Willard Morgan (Education) was the winner of Master's category of this year’s UFS Institutional Three-Minute Thesis competition hosted by the Postgraduate School.

Bonolo Makhalemele (Natural and Agricultural Sciences Faculty) was the second runner-up

Monique Basson (Humanities) was the second runner-up in the PhD category.

Tamson Foster (Natural and Agricultural Sciences Faculty) was the first runner-up.

Kyla Dooley (Natural and Agricultural Sciences Faculty) was the first runner-up.

News Archive

UFS boasts with most advanced chemical research apparatus in Africa

2005-11-23

Celebrating the inauguration of the NMR were from the left Prof Frederick Fourie (Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS), Dr Detlef Müller (Development Scientist and Manager: Africa and Asia of Bruker in Germany, the supplier of the NMR), Prof Jannie Swarts (head of the head of the Division Physical Chemistry at the UFS) and Prof Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS). Photo: Lacea Loader

UFS boasts with most advanced chemical research apparatus in Africa

The University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Chemistry now boasts with some of the most advanced chemical research apparatus in Africa after the latest addition, a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer, was inaugurated today by the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Frederick Fourie. The NMR is used to analyse molecular structures.

Last month the Department of Chemistry celebrated the installation of the most advanced single crystal X-ray diffractometer in Africa. The diffractometer provides an indispensable technique to investigate among others the solid state of compounds for medicinal application.

“Three years ago the UFS executive management realised that, if we want to build a university of excellence, we should invest in research. We started to think strategically about chemistry and decided to bring the apparatus at the Department of Chemistry on a more competitive standard. Strategic partnerships were therefore secured with companies like Sasol,” said Prof Fourie during the inauguration ceremony.

“The installation of the NMR symbolises the ability of the UFS to turn academic areas around. I hope that this is the beginning of a decade of excellence for chemistry at the UFS,” said Prof Fourie.

”The catalogue value of the Bruker 600 MHz NMR is approximately R11 million. With such an advanced apparatus we are now able to train much more post-graduate students,“ said Prof Jannie Swarts, head of the Division Physical Chemistry at the UFS.

”The NMR is the flagship apparatus of the UFS Department of Chemistry that enables chemists to look at compounds more easily at a molecular level. Research in chemistry is critically dependent on NMR, which is a technique that can determine the composition of reactants and products in complicated chemical reactions, with direct application is most focus areas in chemistry,“ said Prof Swarts.

”Parts of the spectrometer consists of non-commercial items that were specifically designed for the UFS Department of Chemistry to allow the study of unique interactions in e.g. rhodium and platinum compounds,” said Prof Swarts.

According to Prof Swarts the NMR enables chemists to conduct investigations on the following:

To evaluate for example the complex behaviour of DNA in proteins as well as the analysis of illegal drugs sometimes used by athletes.
It provides an indispensable technique to investigate compounds for medicinal application for example in breast, prostate and related bone cancer identification and therapy, which are currently synthesised in the Department of Chemistry.
It can also be applied to the area of homogeneous catalysis where new and improved compounds for industrial application are synthesized and characterised, whereby Sasol and even the international petrochemical industry could benefit. This analytical capacity is highly rated, especially in the current climate of increased oil prices.
The NMR can detect and identify small concentrations of impurities in feed streams in the petrochemical industry, e.g. at Sasol and also the international petrochemical industry. These minute amounts of impurities can result in metal catalyst deactivation or decomposition and can cause million of rands worth in product losses.
It is indispensable for studying the complexity of samples that is non-crystalline. These materials represent the vast majority of chemical compounds such as solvents, gasoline, cooking oil, cleaning agents and colorants as examples.

According to Prof Swarts the general medical technique of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) in use at larger hospitals, is based on NMR technology.

”The NMR apparatus enabled the Department of Chemistry to characterise complex molecules that were synthesised for the multi-national company, FARMOFS-PAREXEL, and to negotiate research agreements with overseas universities,” said Prof Swarts.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
22 November 2005

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