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16 March 2022 | Story Nonsindiso Qwabe | Photo IAN VAN STRAATEN
Prof Francis Petersen (UFS), Alex Hickman (AMRF), Dr Ralph Clark (UFS), and Prof Shen Xiaomeng (UN Europe)
Prof Francis Petersen (UFS), Alex Hickman (AMRF), Dr Ralph Clark (UFS), and Prof Shen Xiaomeng (UN Europe)
Mountains matter; 60-80% of the earth’s fresh water comes from mountains, and 50% of the world’s biodiversity hotspots are in mountains. In addition, 50% of land across the world relies on mountain ecosystem services.

This is according to Prof Shen Xiaomeng, United Nations Vice-Rector for Europe, on the first day of the first-ever Southern African Mountain Conference (SAMC2022). The conference, under the theme Southern African Mountains – their value and vulnerabilities, is taking place from 14 to 17 March 2022 in the majestic Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa and Lesotho. 

“We need to go beyond national and regional boundaries to have the collaboration. We have the opportunity to create a world worth living in for ourselves and our children. We can create and co-create together by transcending boundaries,” said Prof Xiaomeng.

The conference – a collective voice for the sustainable management of Southern African mountains – brings together a network of more than 200 delegates from across the globe to discuss a wide array of interventions to ensure the preservation of the ecosystem under global change.

Dr Ralph Clark, chairperson of the SAMC2022 local organising committee and Director of the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) on the Qwaqwa Campus, said the conference – a first for the southern region – presents an opportunity for new collaborations in transdisciplinary research.

Bringing together people from various disciplines in one space for networking and information sharing, the conference seeks to create a space for robust regional and international collaboration and comparative mountain studies with an increase in research activities, student capacity, researcher capacity, and academic outputs that feed into policy and action. 

The conference was officially opened by the Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS, Prof Francis Petersen, as well as Prof Xiaomeng.

Prof Petersen said the UFS firmly believes in getting involved with its surrounding communities and applying skills and knowledge towards making a real, practical, and positive impact in their lives. “Higher education institutions cannot afford to conduct research simply for its own sake. Our research efforts must address the needs of our surrounding communities and the wider world. Which is why, together with Teaching and Learning, and Research, the UFS – like many other South African universities – has a third core function, namely Engaged Scholarship, where we use our academic expertise with an intentional public-benefit purpose,” he said.

The programme has six parallel tracks – one of which is dedicated to postgraduate students – with about 200 papers delivered. In addition, there is a special Mountain Research Institute (MRI) session on long-term monitoring activities and associated data availability for climate change-related applications across Africa’s mountains, as well as a special UNESCO session on regional collaboration.

News Archive

Vice-Chancellor honoured with major awards
2013-05-02

02 May 2013

The University of the Free State (UFS) is proud to announce that Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector, has been awarded a number of major awards recently.

The University of California in the United States awarded him the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance. The award is made in recognition of persons who exemplify in their work the delivery of social justice, diplomacy and tolerance in the diverse local and global society.

“The committee was very impressed with the commitment that Prof Jansen has had to reconciliation and forgiveness as a way to build bridges and to find common ground. Prof Jansen is following in the steps of many of our greatest peace-time leaders and we support his efforts to bring understanding to all cultures,” said Mark Aldenderfer, chair of the awards committee and Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Art at the University of California.

Prof Jansen also received the 2013 Academia Award at the Sixth Annual Ubuntu Lecture and Dialogue Awards Ceremony of the Turquoise Harmony Institute on 4 April 2013 in Johannesburg. The Institute aims to foster relations among different faith and cultural traditions to contribute to the well-being of humanity.

According to the organisers, “outstanding individuals who made noteworthy contributions to dialogue, peace and harmony in the society,” are given recognition during the ceremony. The awards are made in a number of different categories. Prof Jansen was among the recipients who included Graca Machel and the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF). Previous winners of Turquoise Awards include Ahmed Kathrada, Chester Williams, Dr Frene Ginwala and Prof Russel Botman.

On 10 May 2013, Prof Jansen was also honoured by Kappa Delta Pi International Honour Society in Education. He was awarded membership of the Laureate Chapter of the society founded in 1911 which “is comprised of men and women who have made distinguished contributions to education, and is limited to 60 living persons”. Prof Jansen joins an exclusive membership of 293 which includes such luminaries as Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jean Piaget and George Washington Carver.

Also in the United States, Prof Jansen has been invited to be Messenger Lecturer for Fall 2013 at Cornell University. He will give three lectures and interact with the students and staff of Cornell at various functions.

“This is a significant honour and it will really allow members from across the university to get a deeper appreciation of the work you are doing at UFS and in South Africa more broadly,” said Prof Judith Byfield of Cornell’s Department of History and Director of Graduate Studies at the department’s Africana Studies and Research Centre.

On the local front, City Press published its inaugural 100 World Class South Africans on 28 April 2013. During a rigorous selection process, 100 of our country’s most extraordinary citizens who have achieved world-class status were chosen. Prof Jansen’s achievements procured him a place on this prestigious list in the category: Heroes and Mavericks.

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