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Prof Tomas Vetrik
Prof Tomas Vetrik, Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, recently delivered his inaugural lecture on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus.

Prof Tomas Vetrik, Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of the Free State (UFS), recently delivered his inaugural lecture on the Bloemfontein Campus.

His research area is graph theory, and he mainly focuses on the degree-diameter problem, graph indices, and metric dimension of graphs.

Research focus

According to Prof Vetrik, mathematics was always his favourite subject in school. He also excelled in maths at university and decided to enrol for a course on graph theory while working on his master’s degree. “I liked it, so I also chose topics from graph theory for my PhD thesis,” he says.

In 2014, at the age of 32, he was appointed Associate Professor at the UFS, after postdoctoral research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and working at the University of Pretoria. An NRF-rated researcher, he has published close to 75 research papers, a third of that as a single author in some of the most well-known journals in his area. Moreover, he was also research supervisor of three PhD and three master’s students.

International collaborations

In the eight years since his appointment at the UFS, Prof Vetrik has made research visits to universities from 14 different countries that have invited him for research collaborations. 

“I am often overseas. I like working from different places. It is interesting to me, and it helps me to be productive,” says Prof Vetrik, explaining some of the inspiration behind his mathematical ideas.

In the next two years, he would like to study more general mathematical problems beyond his current research area.

He says he is addicted to his research. “It overshadows all my other interests.” 

On the rare occasion when he is not working on his research, Prof Vetrik states that he has to keep himself busy. Unable to relax and do nothing, he likes to do sports of some kind or to travel. 

“I am a simple person. I do not even have a TV at home. I use an old-fashioned mobile phone that cannot access the internet,” he says.


News Archive

A new faculty for the UFS
2008-11-28

During its last meeting of the year, the Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) approved the establishment of a Faculty of Education as from 1 January 2009. This means that the School of Education, which presently falls under the Faculty of the Humanities, will become a fully fledged faculty.

“It has long been imperative that the School of Education should stand on its own, given the fact that it offers professional training and has an approach and specific challenges that differ from those of the Faculty of the Humanities. The faculty is also too large and diverse to manage effectively,” said Prof. Gerhardt de Klerk, Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities at the UFS.

“It was felt that the image of Education offerings at the UFS will be strengthened by it becoming an independent faculty because it will compare favourably with other universities and stronger emphasis will be placed on its uniqueness,” he said.

“The positioning of Education as a unit in a university structure is one of the ways in which the university reflects its regard for the profession,” he said.

According to Prof. De Klerk, staff and student numbers also justify the existence of the School of Education as an independent faculty. There are currently 63 academic staff and 39 support staff members as well as 5 746 undergraduate and 1 579 postgraduate students in the School of Education. Given the student numbers alone, the Faculty of Education will be the university’s second largest faculty after the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za  
28 November 2008
 

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