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11 February 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs and Nonsindiso Qwabe | Photo Supplied
The superpowers of women scientists at the UFS

The University of the Free State (UFS) has implemented several interventions to increase the diversity of its researchers, including its women scientists. Actions have paid off and resulted in an increase in the percentage of rated female researchers, from 27% in 2016 to 34% in 2021.


The university is also host to a number of science leaders in the six National Research Foundation (NRF)-funded South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI). Four of these research chairs are held by women. These are the research chairs in Vector-borne and Zoonotic Pathogens; Disease Resistance and Quality in Field Crops; Higher Education and Human Development; and Pathogenic Yeasts.

Health, medicine, and food sustainability are but three examples of areas in society where the women of the UFS is playing a critical role in science today.

In celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science instituted by the United Nations General Assembly on 22 December 2015, the UFS is honouring its women scientists.

The science of science expos

One of the researchers at the UFS who is using science to make a difference in the lives of learners in our country, is Dr Angela Stott, Researcher and Teacher Educator in the Division of Social Responsibilities Projects (SRP) on the UFS South Campus. Together with colleagues in the SRP, she is involved in numerous Maths and Science outreach interventions to teachers and learners.

Science becomes fun for learners through the different initiatives created by Dr Stott and her colleagues. These include the online Learn Science programme (a brainchild of Dr Stott), using tablets donated by ioT.nxt, and the Creative Clubs intervention started by Dr Joleen Hamilton, a colleague of Dr Stott. In the latter, learners can take part in a MathArt competition and coding sessions.

In this year’s Creative Clubs projects, 100 Grade 9 learners from township schools will be mentored to prepare science fair projects for participation in the Expo for Young Scientists.

But why all this hard work for an expo? For these learners, the expo is more than just a public platform to showcase excellence. According to Dr Stott, learners in South African township schools tend not to be stimulated in extracurricular programmes, since teaching in these contexts is typically restricted to exam training.

However, her research has shown that higher-achieving learners from contexts of poverty respond well to such programmes and gain valuable knowledge, skills, and values from them. “This year, 100 higher-achieving Grade 9 learners from township schools will benefit from this programme, and next year another 100,” she says.

She adds that literature on this subject points to the need for structure, while also supporting learners’ development of autonomy when mentoring a learner to produce a science fair project. Dr Stott explains that the online programme around which this year’s intervention is built, has been created in a manner informed by literature on what is most likely to work. “By us researching the process, we will improve our understanding of how to maximise the benefits and mitigate the weaknesses that learners from poverty gain from such participation. This knowledge could help improve the effectiveness of such programmes throughout the country, and in other parts of the world where similar conditions apply,” she says.

Fighting for stronger immune systems

An international student from Zimbabwe, Nakai Matongera, a PhD graduate in Plant Breeding in the Department of Plant Sciences on the Bloemfontein Campus, is playing a key role in food sustainability in Africa with her research. She is a maize breeder working at the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre (SIRDC) in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The focus of her PhD thesis is on the development of high-yielding and nutrient-dense maize varieties enriched with provitamin A, zinc, and essential amino acids such as lysine and tryptophan.

“With my research, I aimed to develop zinc-enhanced maize varieties that have great potential to reduce zinc deficiency in maize-based developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa,” she says.

Matongera explains that zinc-enhanced hybrids were developed by crossing introduced zinc donors and locally adapted maize inbred lines from three nutritional categories (normal, provitamin A, and quality protein maize (QPM). The hybrids were evaluated for both agronomic and nutritional performance under optimum drought and low nitrogen conditions.

“Results indicated that zinc-enhanced QPM hybrids accumulated high zinc under all growing conditions. However, the zinc-enhanced normal hybrids had the highest yield potential, implying dilution effects.”

“I find my research rewarding, because this biofortification strategy to combat micronutrient deficiency is cost-effective and has wide coverage and sustainability compared to other strategies such as clinical supplementation and food fortification,” says Matongera.

The outcomes of her research will one day, when it is implemented, change the lives of thousands of children in Africa who are suffering from zinc and iron deficiency. The shortage of zinc and iron in their diets affects their cognitive development as well as their immune systems, making them susceptible to a number of illnesses, including diarrhoea.

According to Prof Maryke Labuschagne, Nakai’s supervisor for her PhD study, this research will have a practical impact in Africa, as it will contribute towards the nutritional value of food.

Saving generations of humans and animals

When she could not pursue her childhood dream of becoming a vet, Dr Nthatisi Nyembe forged a new path in zoology, and today she is working in the Department of Zoology and Entomology on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus, where she focuses on veterinary parasitology.

Dr Nyembe’s research looks at the treatment and epidemiology of parasitic diseases in animals and humans, because – as she says – if animals are healthy, then humans are healthy. She says the ripple effect could save generations to come. “I want to be remembered for creating a drug that will make life easier for animals, because if animals are healthy, then the food we consume will also be healthy,” she says.

Dr Nyembe completed her studies on the Qwaqwa Campus from undergraduate to master’s level, specialising in Zoology. She was then awarded a scholarship to complete her PhD studies in Japan, where she spent four years looking into creating compounds that can treat and prevent unwanted parasites in animals, with a specific focus on mice.

“If I can get to a point where I can find one compound that has various benefits on multiple micro-organisms, then I will be happy”, she says.

While acknowledging the wide gender gap that still persists in her field of science, Nyembe says it should not hinder young girls who are interested in pursuing all levels of science.

“Society still looks down on girls and women, especially in Africa. If I go to a farmer as a woman and try to advise them about animal health, very few of them are receptive. However, the majority believe that I need to come with a man in order to be taken seriously. I just want to tell young aspiring female scientists that it is possible.”

“Whatever you put your mind to, you can pull through and achieve. Don’t allow yourself to be intimidated.”

News Archive

Ms Oprah Winfrey to receive an honorary doctorate in Education from our university
2011-06-10

 

Ms Oprah Winfrey

Invitation to the public (PDF document)
Invitation to UFS staff and students (PDF document)
Media accreditation (PDF document)
Street closures on 23 and 24 June 2011 (Bloemfontein Campus)
Map from the Bloemfontein Airport to the UFS (PDF document)
Map of the UFS (PDF document)


For more information, please contact:

Tel: 051 401 3000
E-mail: info@ufs.ac.za

Staff and students from our Qwaqwa Campus, please contact:
Dr Elias Malete's office
 


Our university will be awarding an honorary doctorate in Education to the global media icon, philanthropist and public educator, Ms Oprah Winfrey, on its Bloemfontein Campus on Friday, 24 June 2011.

Both the Council and Senate of our university gave strong support to awarding the honorary doctorate to Ms Winfrey.

By awarding the honorary doctorate, we want to recognise Ms Winfrey’s accomplishments and unparalleled work as a global media leader, as well as a philanthropist with vision and foresight in the field of education and development.

“It is a great privilege for us to be the first South African university to honour Ms Winfrey in this way and to be able to recognise a global icon of her stature,” says Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of our university.

Ms Winfrey already holds honorary doctorates from Princeton University as well as Duke University in the United States, among others.

Reaching millions of viewers in more than 150 countries with her award-winning programme, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” she has brought genuine change into the lives of ordinary people during its 25-year run.

Capitalising on the power of the media and her standing as a global icon, Ms Oprah Winfrey has brought a range of critical social and educational matters to the attention of her viewers. In 2000, she expanded her media reach through the successful creation of O, The Oprah Magazine, which then debuted in South Africa in 2002. Earlier this year, she extended her media influence through the launch of a US cable channel, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.

Her Book Club has had a dramatic and profound impact on the reading habits of America and those of people in other parts of the world, while her public charity, Oprah’s Angel Network, collected approximately $80 million over a period of twelve years in aid of building schools, women’s shelters and youth centres across the globe.

Through her private charity, The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, hundreds of grants have been awarded in support of empowering women, children and families, and The Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program, supports hundreds of university students, in the United States and elsewhere, who are committed to giving back and making a difference in their communities and country.

During a December 2000 visit to former president Nelson Mandela, Ms Winfrey pledged to build a school for girls in South Africa. This gift was to become the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, which opened in 2007.

The Academy embodies her strong belief in the power of education to change the future. The Academy provides a unique educational opportunity to over 400 young girls, in Grades 7 through 12, from all over South Africa. These young women come from small rural towns and the big cities, but they share a common background in that they all come from poor families.

Ms Winfrey believes that the Academy can contribute to the development of a new generation of women leaders, deeply imbued with a sense of public service. The Academy stands as a beacon of hope in the educational landscape of this country.

More recently, Ms Winfrey has turned her attention to the failing public-school system in the United States and has brought the impact thereof on the lives of many people in America to the attention of the American public and policy-makers. Even more profoundly, she has highlighted how poor education entrenches poverty and social exclusion. In this sense, Ms Winfrey demonstrates the interconnection between education struggles in the USA and South Africa in powerful ways.

Both the Interim Director of our university’s International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice, Mr John Samuel, and Prof. Jansen have worked for and with Ms Winfrey on matters of education at her school in Johannesburg, and in South Africa more broadly.

The South African public is invited to share in this occasion, and attend the award ceremony. A limited number of tickets will be available to the public from Wednesday, 15 June 2011 to Wednesday, 22 June 2011, and can be purchased from Computicket at an administrative cost of R10 a ticket.


Media Release

11 June 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

 

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