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UFS hosts 64th Annual Congress of South African Mathematical Society

30 November 2021 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

Prof Johan Meyer, Senior Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, says he is looking forward to learning from others in the field during this collaboration.

What do trees, black holes, earthquakes, and time structures have in common?

The answer to this question is that these, in one way or the other, form the focus of some of the abstracts delivered during the Annual Congress of the South African Mathematical Society. The society has as its main objective the advancement of mathematics in South Africa.

The Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of the Free State (UFS), in conjunction with the South African Mathematical Society (SAMS 2021), is hosting the 64th Annual Congress of the society this week (29 November to 1 December 2021).

Prof Johan Meyer, Senior Professor in the department, says the congress, which is being conducted online, is focusing on all aspects of mathematics research, including history and teaching.

Learning from others in the field

The congress, which aims to share the latest research results in mathematics, will be attended by staff and students from universities across South Africa as well as abroad. “Anyone from the public is, of course, welcome to attend or even share their results if they are also involved in mathematics research,” adds Prof Meyer.

He says that he is looking forward to learning from others in the field during this collaboration.

The congress will include discussions on more than 120 abstracts, covering category theory, algebra, topology, logic; functional analysis and operator theory; finite groups and combinatorial structures; graph theory and combinatorics; lie symmetries and nonlinear differential equations; and applied and numerical mathematics.

Array of interesting topics presented

“It is important in many areas of science and engineering to predict and to simulate rare, random events, the occurrence of which may have negative or even catastrophic consequences. Examples include internet server overflows, mechanical breakdowns, floods, and financial crashes. Rare events can also have a positive effect, triggering for example chemical reactions or driving genetic evolution via random mutations.” Prof Hugo Touchette from Stellenbosch University will be shedding some light on this interesting topic in his presentation on Predicting and simulating rare events.

Prof Jeandrew Brink, Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the UFS, is presenting a plenary session on the topic Determining the geometry of strong field space-times in spite of tacitly assuming the answer during every measurement. In South Africa, state-of-the art pulsar timing data from the MeerKAT telescope will make a considerable contribution to conducting GR orbital tests. Prof Brink comments on how pulsar timing tests differ from tests using gravitational wave detectors, as well as what we can learn from the framework already employed to perform pulsar timing measurements.

News Archive

Faculty of Law establishes unique panel of advisors

2005-11-11

Photo: Stephen Collett

Some of the panel members who attended the Collegium Iurisprudentium of the Faculty of Law at the UFS were from the left His Honorable Judge of Appeal Lex Mpati (Vice-President of the Supreme Court of Appeal), His Honorable Judge of Appeal Joos Hefer (former Chief Justice of South Africa), His Honorable Judge of Appeal Frits Brand (Supreme Court of Appeal) and Mrs Alet Ellis (lecturer at the UFS Faculty of Law).

At the back from left were Prof Johan Henning (Dean: Faculty of Law at the UFS), His Honorable Judge Faan Hancke (High Court of the Free State and chairperson of the UFS Council) and Adv Jannie Lubbe Sc.

The Faculty of Law at the University of the Free State (UFS) has established a panel of advisors comprising of all the honorary and extraordinary professors of the faculty.

“The faculty has been known for its excellent practice-orientated training as well as the involvement of law practitioners in the training of LL B-students,” said Prof Johan Henning, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the UFS.

“The faculty was greatly dependent on the services of advocate lecturers, full-time members of the Bar and Side Bar who lectured on a part-time basis at the faculty. For this reason lecturing in the faculty was mainly done after-hours to part-time students,” said Prof Henning.

With the shift in emphasis to full-time lecturing and the appointment of full-time lecturers, especially because of the increasing student numbers, the full-time LL B-programme and the increasing pressure on students for quality research inputs, a greater need for meaningful contributions of judges and senior law practitioners to the faculty was experienced.

“To comply with this urgent need, three honorary professors and nine extraordinary professors were appointed. This group of experts deliver an indispensable contribution to the practice orientation of the faculty by means of formal lectures, public inaugural lectures and guest lectures, direct lectures to graduate and post-graduate students, participation in research projects and the constant evaluation of lecturers, modules and the content of modules and learning material. The international exposure of students and lecturers is also promoted by their contribution,” said Prof Henning.
“A need to have the involvement of this special class of professors structured in a more organised way was identified and a decision was made to establish an advisory panel called Collegium Iurisprudentium. It is a privilege to us that all the honorary and extraordinary professors accepted the invitation,” said Prof Henning.

The panel will provide the faculty with continuous, distinguished, practice- orientated capability and capacity as well as international expertise, not only for direct inputs to students but also to advise lecturers about the curriculum, the compilation of the content of the LL B and M module, learning material and others, as well as to strengthen the research capacity of the faculty.

“The panel will also deliver a decisive contribution to the faculty’s preparation for the constitutional audit of the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) of the Council for Higher Education (CHE) that will take place in October 2006,” said Prof Henning.

The Collegium Iurisprudentium, which has been formally constituted, comprises of:

Appeal Court Judge J J F Hefer,
Appeal Court Judge L Mpati
Appeal Court Judge F D J Brand
Appeal Court Judge I G Farlam
Prof B A K Rider
Judge S P B Hancke
Judge A Kruger
Judge D H van Zyl
Adv S J Naudé
Adv J Lubbe Sc
Prof M M Katz
Prof R J Cook
Mr S van de Merwe
Mr W van der Westhuizen
Mr D C M Gihwala

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

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