Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
25 March 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Charl Devenish
Prof Liezel Herselman Inuagural Lecture
At the inaugural lecture were from the left: Prof Danie Vermeulen, Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Prof Liezel Herselman, Dr Adré Minnaar-Ontong, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences and Subject Head of Plant Breeding, and Dr Molapo Qhobela, Vice-Rector: Institutional Change, Strategic Partnerships and Societal Impact.

Prof Liezel Herselman, Academic Head of the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS),) delivered her inaugural lecture on the Bloemfontein Campus this week (24 March 2022). The theme of the lecture was the ongoing battle against destructive cereal killers. 

With 28 years of extensive experience as a researcher, her work focuses on marker-assisted disease resistance breeding in wheat within a South African context. When she joined the UFS in 2004, Prof Herselman decided to apply her research expertise in marker-assisted breeding to the problems faced by wheat producers in the Free State and Northern Cape. The Free State is one of the major dryland wheat production areas in South Africa, while irrigation wheat is produced along the major rivers in the Northern Cape. 

Protection against fungal diseases

Concentrating specifically on Fusarium head blight (or wheat scab) and three rust diseases – leaf rust, stem rust, and stripe rust – she has done work to provide wheat plants with ‘tools’ to protect themselves against these fungal diseases.

According to Prof Herselman, there are many genes available in different wheat genotypes and related grass species that provide excellent protection against various races of these diseases. “Some of these genes provide protection or resistance from the seedling stage, while others provide resistance at the adult plant stage. We are thus aiming to combine as many of these genes as possible into a single wheat cultivar, without compromising yield and bread-making quality.”

She says the genes are combined by making crosses between resistant and susceptible cultivars or lines. Conventionally, through a time-consuming process, the incorporation of these genes is tested in the greenhouse and field by infecting plants with the disease to see which plants are resistant and which are not.

They can, however, follow the transfer of these genes to newly developed lines by applying molecular markers. Prof Herselman explains: “A molecular marker is a genomic fragment linked to the gene, which we can follow in the offspring we create from the crosses using different DNA techniques in the laboratory. This enables us to select new wheat lines that contain the highest number of resistance genes. The identified best lines are then used in further crosses and/or released as pre-breeding lines to commercial wheat breeding companies.”

Impact on food security

Her research has an impact on society by providing food security to both commercial and small-scale producers, as well as the end users of wheat (people buying bread and other wheat products). As researcher, it is also important for her to send out students to the workplace who can continue with this task in future.

Prof Herselman believes that when cultivars with fungal-disease tolerance or resistance are released and used by producers, it not only reduces the cost of spraying against diseases, but also increases yields by protecting the crop against fungal diseases. “We live in a world where the population is increasing daily, but land available for agriculture is not increasing and some areas are even lost due to urban development. Increasing yield in available production areas will thus have a positive impact on food security,” she says.

Besides contributing to the country’s food security, she takes pleasure in every aspect of her work. Although she misses the hands-on part of the work as academic head of the department and getting her hands dirty, she still enjoys managing the different research projects (from the conceptualisation phase to data analysis and publishing of results). The part she loves the most is to see the growth in her postgraduate students – from the moment they enter the laboratory for the first time until the day they walk out of the laboratory with their degrees. 

“It adds purpose to my life knowing that I have made a difference in a student’s life and equipped him or her with the necessary tools to be successful in the marketplace. Being able to share your knowledge is a gift, but with that gift comes a lot of responsibility as well. I am, however, up for the challenge,” concludes Prof Herselman. 

News Archive

New student leaders for UFS
2013-08-29

 

Rudi Buys, Dean of Student Affairs (centre), with newly elected president of the Bloemfontein Campus SRC, Phiwe Mathe (left) and Matlogelwa Moema, president of the Qwaqwa Campus SRC.
Photo: Sonia Small
29 August 2013

  Photo Gallery
2013/14 Student Representative Councils: YouTube video

Phiwe Mathe and Matlogelwa Moema, both third year students, have been elected as presidents of the 2013/14 Student Representative Councils (SRC) of the University of the Free State’s Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses respectively. They now also serve as the presidency of the Central SRC and will take up their seats as voting members of the UFS council in September 2013. Thirty-eight candidates contested the 19 elective seats of the campus SRCs, for which 83 nominations were received.

Rudi Buys, Dean of Student Affairs, announced the completion of the elections at the two campuses as successful.Buys deemed the elections highly significant, considering it is the third year of peaceful elections since students adopted changes in student governance in 2011. These changes included, among others, the introduction of independent candidacy for elective portfolios and organisational candidacy in SRC sub-councils that hold ex-officio seats on the campus SRC. Changes also included the establishment of student representative seats in faculty forums and the adoption of reviewed SRC constitutions, Buys said.

The SRC elections at the Qwaqwa Campus were completed on 23 August 2013, while the elections at the Bloemfontein Campus took place on 26 and 27 August 2013. Elections at the Qwaqwa Campus showed a voter turnout of 44% and at the Bloemfontein Campus a turnout of 31.5%, which is among the highest in the country.

Both campuses reached the required quorums and the campus elections bodies, the IEA (Bloemfontein Campus) and IEC (Qwaqwa Campus), declared the elections free and fair and announced the results as a true reflection of the will of the student bodies at the campuses.

This year also saw the piloting of a central SRC elections oversight committee (CEC) to strengthen independent oversight of all elections. The CEC monitors the elections as free, fair and democratic and consists of senior academics and former student leaders of the Student Elders Council. Prof Loot Pretorius, inaugural chair of the CEC, announced the CECs confirmation of the SRC elections across campuses as free, fair and democratic.

Celebrations marked a mass meeting on the Bloemfontein Campus where the new student leaders were announced on Thursday 29 August 2013. There were cheers and singing as Quintin Koetaan, Head of the Bloemfontein IEA, on behalf of the two elections bodies, read the names of the newly-elected student leaders of both campuses. Delivering his victory speech, Phiwe thanked competitors for running a good debate, saying it was not about characters or personalities, but rather the ideas that would best serve a Kovsie. “Students will remain central and the ‘R’ is back in SRC,” he told the resounding crowd. Matlogelwa reiterated this message and said, "the SRC is for students and will serve all students equally."

Following on the heels of the SRC elections, voting for residence committees will take place next week with 618 candidates contesting 231 available positions. The elections of association executive committees will also take place in September.

The new SRC members of the Bloemfontein Campus are:

President: Phiwe Mathe
Vice-President: Tshepo Moloi
Secretary: Masiteng Paul Matlanyane
Treasurer: Willem du Plooy
Arts andCulture:Hlonipa Matshamba
Accessibility and Student Support:Anastasia Sehlabo
First Generation Students: Nthabiseng Malete
Legal and Constitutional Affairs: Mosa Leteane
Media, Marketing and Liaison: Callie Hendricks
Sport: Laurika Hugo
Student Development and Environmental Affairs: Bataung Qhotsokoane
Transformation: Christopher Rawson
Assosiations Council and Ex officio:Ntakuseni Razwiedani
Academics Affairs Council and Ex officio: TBC
Residence Council and Ex officio: Andricia Hinckermann
Commuter Council and Ex officio:Clarise Haasbroek
Postgraduate Council and Ex officio: Oluwatoba Fadeyi
International Council and Ex officio: Brian Hlongwane
Student Media Council and Ex officio: Keabetswe Magano
RAG Fundraising Council and Ex officio: Jaco Faul
Rag Service Council and Ex officio: Suzanne Maree


The new SRC members of the Qwaqwa Campu are:

President: MP Moema
Deputy-President: NT Mndebele
Secretary General: JC Mosiea
Treasurer General: NT Zuma
Politics and Transformation: IT Dube
Media and Publicity: ZF Madlala
Student Development and Environmental Affairs:SS Mtetwa
Off-Campus Students: TSJ Sithole
Arts and Culture: S Mabele
Academic Affairs: NE Litabo
Sport Affairs: TSG Mohlakoana
Religious Affairs:TW Mofokeng
Residence and Catering Affairs: A Ndabankulu
RAG Community Service and Dialogue: S Yende

Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication

Telephone: +27(0)51 401 2584
Cellphone: +27 (0) 83 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl@ufs.ac.za

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept