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Environmental Management gives postgraduates an international experience

02 February 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Leonie Bolleurs

Summer school web read more — Chané Enslin, master’s student in the UFS Centre for Environmental Management (CEM); Stephanie Graumnitz, Institute of Hydrobiology at the Technical University Dresden (TUD); Dr Dirk Jungmann, Head of Ecotoxicology and Biomonitoring in the Institute of Hydrobiology at TUD; Sihle Mlonyeni, master’s student in the Faculty of Applied Science at the Cape Peninsula Technical University; Dr Marinda Avenant, Senior Lecturer in the CEM at the UFS; Akani Baloyi, master’s student in the UFS Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa; and Sphindile Dlamini, master’s student in the Department of Zoology and Entomology on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus.

The Centre for Environmental Management (CEM) at the University of the Free State (UFS), in collaboration with Dr Dirk Jungmann from the Technical University Dresden, recently presented a virtual summer school on Blackboard, titled: Monitoring of surface water quality: General framework, tools and implementing disaster management aspects in urban areas.

The international group of 30 persons who attended the summer school mostly comprised postgraduate students and employees from, among others, the UFS and other tertiary institutions such as the Technical University Dresden (TUD), the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), UNISA, the University of the Western Cape, Stellenbosch University, the University of Lesotho, and the University of Zimbabwe. Members of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research also attended the summer school.

Experts present

Dr Marinda Avenant, Senior Lecturer in the CEM, believes the summer school provides students with a wonderful opportunity to be exposed to a topic, such as aquatic biomonitoring, over and above their normal postgraduate studies. “The presenters are all experts in their field and come from a range of disciplines (from hydrology and chemistry to the social aspects of water), as well as from different countries and perspectives,” she adds.

Some interesting topics covered during the summer school included a panel discussion on water management challenges in Southern Africa. Head of CEM, Prof Paul Oberholser, participated in this live discourse. In 2021, he won the NSTF-Water Research Commission (WRC) Award for his contribution to water resource management in SA over the past five years.

Also contributing a perspective on surface water quality was affiliated professor in CEM, Prof Anthony Turton, who delivered the keynote address on Managing surface water quality as an element of disaster management in urban areas.

Dr Alice Ncube from the UFS Disaster Management Training and Education Centre (DiMTEC) presented on women and disasters (including a case study on a stokvel in Botshabelo), and Dr Inga Jacobs-Mata from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) provided a social perspective on the water resources sector.

Students excel

Five master’s students representing the UFS, the Technical University Dresden (TUD), as well as the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), assisted with the organisation of the summer school. The Volkswagen Foundation in Germany, which funded a first summer school in 2019, provided funding that was used to appoint the five students.

According to Dr Avenant, they made provision for the appointment of these students in their project proposal to the Volkswagen Foundation. “The students played a key role in the planning of the virtual summer school; they specially came up with ideas to make the virtual sessions more interesting,” she says.

Among others, they managed the technical aspects of the sessions, introduced the speakers, arranged social activities for the virtual platform, and they produced podcasts. The podcasts of the speakers were distributed to the participants over the extent of two months, in order to learn more about the presenters.

“We were really impressed with the work of the students, who are all from the natural sciences,” says Dr Avenant.

News Archive

International Year of Crystallography attracts science experts from across the globe

2014-10-13

Video: Discover what Chrystallopgraphy can do for you
Video: Celebrating Crystallography: An Animated Adventure

Summit programme

The third world summit in the International Year of Crystallography (in Africa) will be hosted by the UFS Department of Chemistry here on the Bloemfontein Campus. Prof André Roodt, Head of the Department of Chemistry, was elected as the President of the European Crystallographic Association in 2012. Earlier this year he unveiled the Max von Laue 'Plaque' in Posnan, Poland.

The Pan-African Meeting of the International Year of Crystallography consists of a congress and summit. The details are as follows:

Congress
12–15 October 2014
CR Swart Senate Hall, UFS Bloemfontein Campus

Summit
15–17 October 2014
CR Swart Senate Hall, UFS Bloemfontein Campus
Summit opening: Wednesday 15 October 2014 at 14:00 in the CR Swart Senate Hall

This event will be opened and attended by:
•   the UFS Rector and Vice-Rector – Profs Jonathan Jansen and Corli Witthuhn;
•   the acting Director-General of the Department of Science and Technology – Dr Thomas Auf der Heyde;
•   the acting CEO of the National Research Foundation – Dr Gansen Pillay;
•   the UNESCO Vice-Director for Science Extension – Dr Jean-Paul Ngome-Abiaga (Paris, France);
•   the representative of the Executive Committee for the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) – Prof Santiago Garcia-Granda (Oviedo: Spain);
•   the marketing director of the IUCr – Prof Michele Zema (Pavia, Italy);
•   the President of the European Crystallographic Association (ECA) – Prof André Roodt, who will officially open the summit on Wednesday 15 October 2014 from 14:00–15:30.

Presenters from across Africa and Europe will deliver papers at this event which will be attended by more than 100 delegates from twenty-plus countries, including Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, Germany, Russia and India.

Numerous crystallographic research areas will be covered. This includes:
•   powder diffraction,
•   small molecule crystallography,
•   biological crystallography,
•   industrial crystallography,
•   surface crystallography,
as well as techniques such as
•   electron microscopy and
•   synchrotron work.

“At this event we hope to establish an African Crystallographic Association,” said Prof Roodt.

The United Nations declared 2014 as the International Year of Crystallography. It was recently officially opened at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, by the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon.

The International Year of Crystallography celebrates the centennial of the work of Max von Laue and the father and son, William Henry and William Laurence Bragg. More generally, it celebrates what crystallography can do for humanity – which proves to be a significant amount.

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