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#UFSWomen: Prof Aliza le Roux on being bold and fearless

17 August 2021 | Story Nonsindiso Qwabe | Photo Sonia Small (Kaleidoscope Studios)

Prof Aliza Le Roux copy — Bold and fearless - Prof Aliza le Roux.

Prof Aliza le Roux is Associate Professor in Zoology and Entomology, and Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus.

A researcher at heart, and with a passion for researching wild mammals, small carnivores, and primates, Prof Le Roux says she is extremely curious and loves to know about a lot of different things.

I decided that I wanted to do something with wildlife, so I completed a BSc degree at Stellenbosch University. One day a professor said: “I just got back from doing research – we were catching lizards along the Orange River” – and I remember thinking, ‘yes, I can see that as my life’. Research is a fantastic career for anyone with curiosity and perseverance. You must have a good dose of bull-headed persistence. We all have the baseline intelligence, but anyone who has studied up to PhD will tell you that it is the persistence that carries you through.

Is there a woman who inspires you and who you would like to celebrate this Women’s Month, and why?

What drew me into a career in research was Dian Fossey, an American researcher who was known for undertaking an extensive study of mountain gorilla groups. She had the guts to go out there and be there in the wilderness as the only woman there, doing stuff under extremely difficult conditions.

Recently, it will be Simone Biles – she does the most mind-blowing stuff with gymnastics – who said she could not go forward with competing in the Olympics because of health reasons. I cannot imagine what guts it takes to say no at such a high-profile sporting event. The ability to say no is something that few of us possess, so right now she is a person I would love to celebrate. I am inspired by women who have the guts and the fact that you believe enough in yourself to do something, despite what others might have to say about it.

What is your response to current challenges faced by women and available platforms for women development?

There is never enough support or platforms available for the development of women while you have domestic violence and GBV at such insane rates in this country. It’s still a women’s problem, whereas its men perpetrating this and women implicitly supporting it in the way we raise young men and respond to things such as rape accusations.

It’s a societal problem, and I personally will not be happy until I see this changing in the country. You can look at the massive inequalities and gender biases and the things that are stacked against women, and then feel overwhelmed and step back and say this is too big a problem, I can’t do anything about it. You might not be able to tackle the big problem, but you can chip away at it. Everybody must contribute in a small way.

What advice would you give to the 15-year-old you?

Be bold. Be fearless. I slowly started becoming like that at that age, but I could have started earlier. I should have told her I was gay; that would have helped.

What would you say makes you a woman of quality, impact, and care?

There’s a healthy dose of guts and believing in yourself – that is the only way to make an impact. You cannot make an impact if you are doubting your own value, and this is difficult, because we are raised in many instances to be meek, raised to not be leaders but followers, and it’s difficult to overcome that and realise that you are bringing something unique to this world.

The university is taking some very good steps with the mentorship programmes that it supports. But I would love to see more mentorship for students. Young men and young women in our care being inspired to talk and rethink how they treat women and what equality really means. We need to create more reflective people.

News Archive

Multi-disciplinary research approach at UFS

2005-10-25

UFS follows multi-disciplinary research approach with opening of new centre

“A new way of doing business in necessary in the research and teaching of agriculture and natural sciences in South Africa. We must move away from departmentalised research infrastructures and a multi-disciplinary approach to research involving several disciplines must be adapted,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Prof van Schalkwyk delivered the keynote address during the launch of the Centre for Plant Health Management (CePHMa) at the Main Campus in Bloemfontein today (21 October 2005). CePHMa is an initiative of the UFS Department of Plant Sciences.

According to Prof van Schalkwyk a tertiary institution must practice multi-disciplinary research to be a world-class research institution. “It is difficult for researchers to admit that they do not know a lot about each other’s area of speciality. It is therefore necessary for researchers to make a paradigm shift and to focus on inter-disciplinary co-operation. To do this, we must encourage them to work together and to find a common language to communicate ideas en establish symbiotic relationships,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

“We tend to think that research is better and faster if it is specialised. This is not true. The new generation of scientists are young and they are trained to form a concept of the total system and not to focus on a specific area of speciality. At the UFS we encourage this approach to research. This was one of the main reasons for the establishment of CePHMa,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.
CePHMa is the only centre of its kind in Africa and is established to extend the expertise in plant health management in South Africa and in Africa, to train experts in plant health and to conduct multi-disciplinary research about the health of agricultural crops.

“CePHMa is a virtual centre comprising of ten disciplines applicable to crop production and crop protection,” said Prof Wijnand Swart, Chairperson of CePHMa during the opening ceremony.

“The UFS is the leading institution in Africa in terms of news crop development and manages three research programmes that concentrate on new crops, i.e. the New Crop Pathology Programme, the New Crop Development Programme and the Insects on New Crops Programme. Other applied research programmes that are unique to the UFS are genetic resistance to rust diseases of small grain crops and sustainable integrated disease management of field crops,” said Prof Swart.

“Because the expected growth in population will be 80% in 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa, the future demands of food produce in Africa will be influenced. Therefore research will in future be focused on ways to improve food security by employing agricultural systems that are economically viable and environmentally sound,” said Prof Swart.

“Thorough knowledge of the concept of holistic plant health management is crucial to meet the challenge and it is therefore imperative that innovative crop protection and crop production strategies, with particular emphasis on plant health, be adopted. This is why the Department of Plant Sciences initiated the establishment of CePHMA,” he said.

According to Prof Swart there is a shortage of expertise in plant health management. “The UFS has shown the potential to address the demand of the sub-continent of Africa regarding expertise training and CePHMa is the leader in southern Africa to provide in this need,” he said.

The appropriateness and quality of training in plant health management is reflected in the fact that students from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, Cameroon, Angola, Mozambique and Lesotho have already been trained or are in the process of being trained in at the UFS.

Scientists from CePHMa have forged partnerships with numerous national and international institutions including the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), various community trusts, seed, pesticide and agricultural chemical companies, in addition to overseas universities.

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

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