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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.

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Chancellor’s Medal awarded to Tokkie Pretorius for outstanding service to the community

2014-12-12

Tokkie (JL) Pretorius – a qualified attorney who obtained his BProc, LLB and LLM at the University of the Free State (UFS) – was the recipient of the prestigious Chancellor’s Medal on 11 December 2014 during our Summer Graduation Ceremony. This latest honour builds on a path of achievements, being a previous recipient of both a Dean’s Medal as well as the Juta Prize for the best law student at the UFS.

The Chancellor’s Medal is awarded to an individual for outstanding service or achievement at local, national or international level, or for service to the community or the UFS. The academic component of a candidate’s contribution or achievement may be taken into account, but will not be decisive.

Pretorius was General Manager: Legal Services at the Free State Development Corporation (FDC) from 1996 – 2009 and Company Secretary from 2004 – 2009. Since 2009, he has been the CEO of the Anglo-Boer Museum in Bloemfontein.

“It is a great honour for me to receive the Chancellor’s Medal,” said Pretorius – who was nominated for the Bloemfonteiner of the Year competition in 2011.

“The medal is awarded to me at a very relevant time for the museum as well. The museum is at a time where nation-building, diversity and transformation are priority. Therefore, the Chancellor’s Medal award is an indication of the close co-operation between the museum and the UFS, both of whom are focused on the promotion of nation building, diversity and transformation,” Pretorius said.

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