The Department of Physics at the University of the Free State (UFS) is extremely proud of six graduands who received doctorates at this year’s Winter Graduation which took place from on the Bloemfontein Campus from 1-2 July 2015. Three of the graduands are personnel in this department.

According to Prof Koos Terblans from the Department of Physics, it seems to be the most PhDs awarded at the university during one graduation ceremony.

The following people received doctorates:
1) Dr Shaun Cronje (UFS)
He investigated the loss of surface atoms during segregation of Sb from Cu using a computational model and experimental measurements.

2) Dr George Tshabalala (UFS)
He synthesised and characterised down-conversion nanophosphors.

3) Dr Hendrik van Heerden (UFS)
He searched for pulsed high-energy non-thermal emission from the nova-like variable system AE Aquarii.

4) Dr Pieter Barnard (SASOL)
He investigated the surface segregation of S in Fe and Fe-Cr alloys using computational models and experimental methods.
5) Dr Luyanda Noto
He investigated the luminescence mechanisms of tantalite phosphors.

6) Dr Alida Odendaal (UFS)
She investigated the multi-wavelength properties of a sample of Magellanic cloud and Galactic supersoft X-ray Binaries.