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24 October 2022 | Story Andrè Damons | Photo Monsoon Photography
Prof Paul Oberholster
Prof Paul Oberholster was one of 29 scholars and scientists that were inaugurated as new ASSAf members in earlier this month (19 October 2022).

Prof Paul Oberholster, Director of the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of the Free State (UFS), is the newest academic from the university to be inaugurated as a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). 

Prof Oberholster was one of 29 scholars and scientists who were inaugurated as new ASSAf members earlier this month (19 October 2022). At the same time, 10 new members of the South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS) were inaugurated.

As the official Academy of South Africa, ASSAf honours the country’s most outstanding scholars by electing them to membership of the Academy. ASSAf members are drawn from the full spectrum of disciplines. New members are elected each year by the full membership of the Academy in recognition of scholarly achievement. Members are the core asset of the Academy and give of their time and expertise voluntarily in the service of society. The 29 new ASSAf Members bring the total membership of ASSAf to 659.

Science must be in the service

“I feel very honoured to have been selected as a member of the official national academy of science which represents South Africa in the international community of science academies. I am a strong believer that science must be in the service of society. In all my research, I have shown an interest and determination to bring practitioners, students, and scholars together to pursue and foster the betterment of the human condition through its intimate relation to the natural world. The latter is in strong relationship with the vision and mission of the Academy,” says Prof Oberholster about being included in the academy of science.

This honour comes almost a year after Prof Oberholster won the NSTF-Water Research Commission (WRC) Award for his contribution to water resource management in SA over the past five years, with special reference to the field of biological passive wastewater treatment.

According to him, the ASSAf membership means providing evidence-based scientific advice on water resource issues of public interest to government and other stakeholders. He was nominated by Prof Eugene Cloete, the previous Vice-Rector Research and Innovation at Stellenbosch University for his research focus related to water resource management.

Research has direct impact on the most important resources

Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice Rector: Research and Internationalisation, says the UFS staff and students are proud of the national recognition that Prof Oberholster received for his lifetime achievements in research on water resource management. His research has direct impact on the managing, protection and rehabilitation of one of the country’s most important resources.  

“The demands on our water supplies will increase in the future as a result of climate change globally. We believe his research will become even more important and relevant in the next decade. We are looking forward to his future achievements and will work with him to provide him with the appropriate UFS support.  Congratulations,” says Prof Witthuhn.

News Archive

UFS researcher engineers metal surfaces
2015-03-03

Shaun Cronjé, a PhD student, in a surface characterisation laboratory at the UFS.

It is well known that the surface of a component is much more vulnerable to damage than the interior, and that surface-originated degradation such as wear, corrosion, and fracture will eventually destroy the component.

“Engineering the surface, based on scientific knowledge, is essential to control these damaging processes. It also creates electronic and geometric structures on the surface which opens up a world of new devices, especially considering the properties on the nano-length scale,” said Prof Wiets Roos from the Department of Physics at the University of the Free State (UFS).

At elevated temperatures, atoms are more mobile and can migrate to grain boundaries and surfaces, which have a major influence on material properties. The redistribution of solute atoms between the surface and the bulk of the material is known as segregation. Knowing the behaviour of segregation at the surface/environment interface can be very useful in the development of new materials. As an example materials can be improved higher efficiency and lower fuel consumption, thus reducing environmental pollution.

The main aims of Prof Roos’s research are to understand surface segregation, use it as a tool, and contribute to the various surface engineering fields.

The surface characterisation laboratories at the UFS are well equipped to do high temperature segregation measurements, and have already proven a success, not only in the ability to prepare the specimens for characterisation, but also in developing models and procedures to quantify the segregation parameters.

The most recent results have demonstrated the importance of taking evaporation into account during quantification.” This has laid the foundation for future studies by installing the necessary hardware in a surface characterisation spectrometer, establishing experimental protocols, and improving an existing model (developed in this laboratory) for simulating segregation profiles,” said Prof Roos.

Segregation parameters allow the researcher to predict and utilise the surface concentration behaviour as a function of temperature and time. “This not only contributes to fields involving corrosion, oxidation, sintering, wear, chemical poisoning, powder metallurgy, and lubrication but adds to the development of self-healing devices,” said Prof Roos.

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