Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Department of Chemistry strengthens international ties through International Chemical Symposium

30 June 2021 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath

organic chemistry_web read more — Dr Charlene Marais, Prof Vladimir Azov and Prof Ulrich Hennecke

The Department of Chemistry at the University of the Free State (UFS) held a successful online International Symposium on Organic Chemistry on 15 June 2021. The symposium brought together scientists from several South African and foreign universities and created a virtual platform for a long-awaited discussion stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic. About 20 participants from universities in South Africa, Belgium, and Germany presented their lectures during the symposium. In addition, this symposium was directed at the postgraduate students in the Department of Chemistry at the UFS, allowing them to present their results to an international audience and to foster their engagement in scientific research.

For more than a year, the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented the common personal communication avenues for the researchers: face-to-face (F2F) conferences, symposia, and workshops. To bridge this gap, Prof Vladimir Azov and Dr Charlene Marais from the Department of Chemistry organised the online meeting for the researchers from the UFS and several other local and foreign universities, all working in the field of organic chemistry.

Online material from the International Symposium on Organic Chemistry is available at here

Collaborative project between the UFS and VUB towards the development of gel-based drug release systems

The symposium also served as a long-awaited inception meeting for the collaborative project between the Organic Chemistry group at the UFS and the Organic Chemistry (ORGC) group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). This project is jointly funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and FWO (Research Foundation – Flanders); it is aimed at the development of new peptide-based materials with properties controllable by precisely tuned interactions of unnatural amino acids included in the peptide sequence. Such peptides can, for example, be used as smart materials for precisely controllable drug release. The South African team members, directed by Prof Vladimir Azov, will specialise in the development of the new amino acid building blocks, whereas the VUB team, headed by Prof Ulrich Hennecke, will focus on peptide preparation and studies on their properties.

This kick-off meeting was initially planned as a F2F event in June 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 travelling restrictions and finally migrated to a virtual space. This provided an opportunity to present the project proposals and to discuss the initial results in a much broader circle than would have been possible within the common F2F meeting framework.

News Archive

Opera in Odeion

2005-03-11

Nols Nieman - Volksblad
DIE eerste opera op die Volksbladkunstefees, 'n konsert van klavierduette deur die vermaarde pianiste Albie van Schalkwyk en Anneke Lamont, drie konserte deur die Nasionale Jeugsimfonie-orkes en 'n uitvoering deur die bekende Rosamundestrykkwartet.

Dit is van die hoogtepunte wat vir liefhebbers van klassieke musiek op die Volksblad-kunstefees van 12 tot 17 Julie in Bloemfontein beplan word. Op 'n kunstefeesvergadering gister op die kampus van die Universiteit van die Vrystaat (UV), het mev. Doks Briers, hooforganiseerder, bekend gemaak dat die Nasionale Jeugsimfonie-orkes drie konserte gaan hou, waarvan twee volle simfoniekonserte gaan wees. Dié orkes hou tydens die fees 'n kamp op die Kovie-kampus.

Me. Hanna van Niekerk, sangdosent en konsertkoördineerder van die departement musiek aan die UV, het gesê die plan is om die sprokie-opera Hansie en Grietjie van Humperdinck in die Odeion op die kampus aan te bied. Die Skool vir Musiek in Potchefstroom van die Noordwes-universiteit onder leiding van Werner Nel voer dit uit.

Ook word 'n konsert deur die Rosamunde-strykkwartet beplan. Van Niekerk beskou Rosamunde as die beste strykkwartet in die land. Die vier vroue in die kwartet is Denise Sutton (viool), Suzanne Swanepoel-Martens (viool), Jeanne-Louise Moolman (altviool) en Marian Lewin (tjello)

Die beplande konsert van klavierduette deur Van Schalkwyk en Lamont behoort ook 'n vol saal te trek.

Volksblad - Woensdag 23 Februarie 2005

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept