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Global Citizen and the role of Digital Futures

17 September 2021 | Story Nitha Ramnath

Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Free State, South Africa, invites us to rethink our relationship with the world in a series of ‘Courageous Conversations’ on the theme of ‘The Global Citizen’. Prof Petersen argues that COVID-19 has been a powerful ‘disruptor’ – it was a stark reminder of the need to rethink our identity, of where we belong, our ‘normative’ view of citizenship – if we want to secure long-term survival of our civilisation and the environments that support it.

Global Citizen and the role of Digital Futures – Monday, 27 September - 13:30 SAST / 12:30 BST

How we turn information into intelligence is the subject of SACC’s next ‘Courageous Conversation’ with University of the Free State Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, in his series debating ‘The Global Citizen’. “I believe the world needs multi-disciplinary solutions to its global problems. For this reason, I established the Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Futures at the University of the Free State as part of my vision to infuse the natural and social sciences and the humanities with everything that digital brings to a multi-disciplinary approach in order to solve real-world problems through the power of big-data analysis,” says Prof Petersen.

Prof Philippe Burger, the UFS Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Poverty, Inequality, and Economic Development, together with Prof Katinka de Wet and Herkulaas Combrink, the interim co-directors of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Futures, will join Prof Petersen to discuss the value that such an approach can bring to finding solutions to real-world problems. They will also share information on some of the exciting projects of international relevance that they are working on. Agriculture and food security, medicine, and attitudes to issues such as, for example, vaccination, education, governance, and ethics are key foci of the centre.

Join us to find out how big-data analysis and a multi-disciplinary approach can transform understanding and deliver solutions to some of the challenges we face as citizens of the world.

To RSVP click here

The Global Citizen Courageous Conversations series

In partnership with the South African Chamber of Commerce based in the United Kingdom, the Global Citizen Courageous Conversations series that was launched on 26 May 2021, brings together powerful voices from public life, intellectuals, public interest and business leaders, academics, naturalists, religious leaders, astrophysicists, economists, ecologists, and others.

If you missed our previous Global Citizen Courageous Conversations, you can watch the replay on YouTube, or visit the South African Chamber of Commerce website for the recordings.

News Archive

UFS scientists involved in groundbreaking research to protect rhino horns

2010-07-27

Pictured from the left are: Prof. Paul Grobler (UFS), Prof. Antoinette Kotze (NZG) and Ms. Karen Ehlers (UFS).
Photo: Supplied

Scientists at the University of the Free State (UFS) are involved in a research study that will help to trace the source of any southern white rhino product to a specific geographic location.

This is an initiative of the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa (NZG).

Prof. Paul Grobler, who is heading the project in the Department of Genetics at the UFS, said that the research might even allow the identification of the individual animal from which a product was derived. This would allow law enforcement agencies not only to determine with certainty whether rhino horn, traded illegally on the international black market, had its origin in South Africa, but also from which region of South Africa the product came.

This additional knowledge is expected to have a major impact on the illicit trade in rhino horn and provide a potent legal club to get at rhino horn smugglers and traders.

The full research team consists of Prof. Grobler; Christiaan Labuschagne, a Ph.D. student at the UFS; Prof. Antoinette Kotze from the NZG, who is also an affiliated professor at the UFS; and Dr Desire Dalton, also from the NZG.

The team’s research involves the identification of small differences in the genetic code among white rhino populations in different regions of South Africa. The genetic code of every species is unique, and is composed of a sequence of the four nucleotide bases G, A, T and C that are inherited from one generation to the next. When one nucleotide base is changed or mutated in an individual, this mutated base is also inherited by the individual's progeny.

If, after many generations, this changed base is present in at least 1% of the individuals of a group, it is described as a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), pronounced "snip". Breeding populations that are geographically and reproductively isolated often contain different patterns of such SNPs, which act as a unique genetic signature for each population.

The team is assembling a detailed list of all SNPs found in white rhinos from different regions in South Africa. The work is done in collaboration with the Pretoria-based company, Inqaba Biotech, who is performing the nucleotide sequencing that is required for the identification of the SNPs.

Financial support for the project is provided by the Advanced Biomolecular Research cluster at the UFS.

The southern white rhino was once thought to be extinct, but in a conservation success story the species was boosted from an initial population of about 100 individuals located in KwaZulu-Natal at the end of the 19th century, to the present population of about 15 000 individuals. The southern white rhino is still, however, listed as “near threatened” by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Media Release:
Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za
27 July 2010

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