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22 September 2021
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Story Michelle Nöthling
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Photo Supplied
Annemarie Le Roux.
“I love working with children.” This is one of the first things Annemarie le Roux mentions when asked to describe herself. This love for children propelled Annemarie into the field of education and she graduated in 2006 with a BEd in Foundation Phase at the UFS. Annemarie immediately immersed herself in the Deaf community, enriching the lives of children at the Thiboloha School for the Deaf in Qwaqwa and the De la Bat School for the Deaf in Worcester.
The academic world enticed Annemarie back to the University of the Free State (UFS) and she was appointed as a junior lecturer in the Department of South African Sign Language (SASL) and Deaf Studies in 2013. Going from strength to strength, Annemarie completed her master’s degree in SASL in 2019, and published an
article earlier this year that she co-wrote with Marga Stander. In this article, they found that SASL “has become an increasingly popular language that hearing university students want to learn as a second language” and subsequently explored different teaching methods used for this emerging group of interested students.
Although now firmly established in academia, Annemarie is still committed to the practical application of SASL. “I am closely involved in student and community engagement through the
SIGNALS Sign Language student association that helps empower the Deaf community and South African Sign Language.” She also interprets for the Deaf community whenever she gets an opportunity, as well as for Deaf students in class and meetings.
On the importance of Sign Language and the recognition of the Deaf community in South Africa, Annemarie believes it will open greater opportunities for development. “More people will be able to learn SASL, and it might even become a subject in school for hearing children.”
UFS receives apparatus for research in bio analysis
2006-08-31
The Department of Chemistry at the University of the Free State (UFS) and FARMOVS-PAREXEL received three mass spectrometers valued at R6 000 000 from Applied-Biosystems (Canada), one of the biggest suppliers of mass spectrometers in the world.
The apparatus will be used in the department's research projects on bio analytical and bio prospecting in the search of new drugs for indigenous biodiversity. The UFS Department of Chemistry and FARMOVS-PAREXEL have been working together closely for the past two years to develop new bio analytical methods to analyse drugs in blood.
Standing next to one of the mass spectrometers are from the left: Prof Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences), Dr Irene Kamara (senior lecturer at the UFS Department of Chemistry), Dr Kenneth Swart (senior director and head of the bioanalytical section of FARMOVS-PAREXEL), Mr Uwe Völlkopf (Business Development Manager of Applied Biosystems (Canada)) and Prof Jan van der Westhuizen (head of the organic chemistry division at the UFS Department of Chemistry).