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Prof Tomas Vetrik, addicted to maths research

27 May 2022 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Charl Devenish

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

Another boost for sport at the UFS

2005-10-13

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has officially appointed Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd, which has former Springbok rugby captain Morné du Plessis as managing director, to manage its Centre for Exercise and Sport Science Services (CESSS) on the Bloemfontein campus.

According to Prof Teuns Verschoor, Vice-Rector: Academic Operations, the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is another step in the implementation of the UFS’s wide-ranging sport strategy to improve sport facilities and elevate formerly marginalized sports such as soccer, hockey, netball, tennis etc.

Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is the manager of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa and coordinates and manages the national basketball high-performance programme of SA Basketball, as well as the Boxing Academy on behalf of Boxing South Africa.

“It is also actively involved with the sports plans of several tertiary institutions like that of the University of Johannesburg and the University of Stellenbosch,” said Prof Verschoor.

“Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was also appointed by the Ministry of Sport and Recreation to manage the allocation of sports codes to high-performance centres and to oversee the allocation of monies received from the National Lottery to these centres – this includes the CESSS at the UFS,” Prof Verschoor added.

In unfolding its national sports plan, the Ministry of Sport and Recreation has already identified the UFS-based CESSS as the high-performance testing centre for the national basketball teams whilst the national boxing teams are also earmarked to be trained at the UFS.

“We are glad to be associated with a company of this stature and look forward to work with them in the further development of sports at the UFS,” said Prof Verschoor.

According to Prof Verschoor, the CESSS will act as a centralised body that is responsible for the coordination and management of joint initiatives between professional service providers, research projects and KovsieSport.

“The centre will also coordinate and manage joint initiatives between various academic programmes in different academic subject fields such as sports medicine, bio kinetics, physiotherapy, dietetics, etc. ,” said Prof Verschoor.

These initiatives will help the UFS to become a centre and catalyst of sports development, to become internationally recognised in the field of exercise and sports science research and to become a centre for high quality sports performance enhancement.

Some of the objectives of the CESSS are:

To provide sports science services like to athletes, students, the general public and other stakeholders including certain national sport teams.
To provide the necessary teaching and training facilities and internship opportunities for UFS students in sports related fields of study will also be provided by the centre like human movement science.
To present skills-transfer programmes directed at the broader community like development of skills in various sporting codes.
To continue and extend the current chronic risk reversal programmes presented by the Department of Human Movement Science such as obesity management, cardiac rehabilitation and other lifestyle related conditions.

The centre was founded in 2003 and was until now managed by Dr Louis Holtzhausen, from Kovsie Health and a consultant, Dr Gary Vorster.

A contract formalizing the appointment of Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd was signed today by Prof Verschoor and Mr Morne du Plessis in the historic Main Building of the UFS Bloemfontein campus.

The manager of the centre appointed by Sports Plan (Pty) Ltd is Mr Charles Store, an alumnus of the UFS, previously employed at the Sports Science Institute in Cape Town and by the SANDF at 3 Military Hospital, Bloemfontein.

Media release
Issued by: Anton Fisher
Director: Strategic Communication
072-207-8334
12 October 2005

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