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25 May 2022
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Story Alicia Pienaar
The Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities, Prof Heidi Hudson, has the pleasure of inviting you to the inaugural lecture of Prof Paul Fouché in the Department of Psychology.
Event details:
Date: Wednesday 1 June 2022
Time: 17:30 SAST
Venue: Equitas Auditorium, UFS Bloemfontein Campus
RSVP before or on 27 May 2022 to Anneke Diesel, +27 51 401 9314 or email denobilia@ufs.ac.za
Subject:
Understanding Greatness: Dissecting the eminent personality from a psychobiographical approach
About the Speaker:
Paul Fouché has been employed at the UFS since 2007. Currently, he is a professor and a registered counselling psychologist with the HPCSA and an active member of the Psychological Society of South Africa. He is also an NRF C-rated researcher. As research supervisor/co-supervisor, he has graduated 115 postgraduate students.
He served on the editorial committee of Acta Academica, was guest editor of the Journal of Psychology in Africa, and co-editor of special issues on psychobiography for Europe’s Journal of Psychology and two books by Springer. Paul is the
coordinator of the BPsych Honours programme and lectures in the Applied Master’s programme.
Academic credentials:
PhD: 1999, Psychobiography, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa
MSocSc cum laude: 1993, Counselling Psychology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
BSocSc Honours cum laude: 1990, Psychology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
BSocSc: 1989, Psychology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa
Postgraduate student to conduct research on maize quality at Michigan State University
2017-03-27

Schae-Lee Olckers, master’s student in the
Department of Microbial Biochemical and
Food Biotechnology.
Photo: Supplied
Schae-Lee Olckers, a master’s student in the Department of Microbial Biochemical and Food Biotechnology at the University of the Free State (UFS), will be travelling to the US in a few weeks’ time. For the next two years she will be doing research at the Michigan State University (MSU) at its Department of Food Science, working on wheat quality and its baking properties.
Increase the nutritional value of maize
The title of her master’s research project is: “The influence of low and optimal nitrogen conditions on the nutritional value of quality protein maize”. She is focusing on the influence of environmental conditions on the nutritional value of maize.
New hybrids of maize production developed
Olckers said: “I chose to start my research on this specific topic in my honours year because maize is the main staple crop in South Africa, as well as in the rest of Africa. Therefore, micronutrient malnutrition is a major concern for developing countries as well as for poor people who rely on it as a major food source. I found it interesting that these breeding programmes that are being developed for new hybrids of maize for production are focusing on increasing the nutritional value of maize and can therefore help eliminate micronutrient malnutrition in some populations of poor communities,” she said.
Prof Perry Ng will be her research supervisor. He is an affiliated professor at UFS in the division of Plant Breeding. “I am very excited about the opportunity to travel and to gain experience working with a well-known cereal scientist. The work he does is also closely associated with my research,” said Olckers.
Her supervisors at UFS are Profs Garry Osthoff and Maryke Labuschagne from the Departments of Microbial Biochemical and Food Biotechnology and Plant Sciences respectively.