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UFS scholar first to participate in the University of Michigan fellowship programme

04 October 2022 | Story Samkelo Fetile | Photo Supplied

Dr Sevias Guvuriro from the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) is the first UFS candidate to participate in the University of Michigan African Presidential Scholarship (UMAPS) fellowship programme. Dr Guvuriro is also a member of the Future Professoriate Group participating in the Transformation of the Professoriate Programme.

About the project

Dr Guvuriro’s main project during his five-month stay at the University of Michigan was on hazardous drinking and economic preferences among urban youth in South Africa. The project recognises that lifestyle behaviours in early life are important drivers of chronic disease later in life, and that harmful use of alcohol is among the main risk factors for non-communicable diseases in the world. According to Dr Guvuriro, persuasive behaviour-change approaches could be useful, especially in the context of developing countries, where the World Health Organisation’s non-communicable diseases ‘Best Buys’ interventions on alcohol use could be ineffective. Behavioural economics and experimental economics techniques could also be beneficial. "With the assistance of my host, Prof Erin Krupka from the University of Michigan School of Information, academics and other staff members, I have made very strong progress in analysing my survey and experimental data on the subject, which I obtained here in South Africa,” said Dr Guvuriro.

Unpacking UMAPS

UMAPS offers African scholars drawn from across Africa the opportunity to spend five months at the University of Michigan, working and interacting with faculty members who are leaders in their fields. Each year, applications for the fellowship open on 15 August and close on 15 October. The programme started in 2009, hosting a single cohort each year. From 2020, the programme hosted two cohorts of about 15 African scholars each. These scholars are selected annually from an application pool of about 600.

"It was an amazing experience, one that I wish all of my colleagues in the faculty and the institution at large could have," Dr Guvuriro said. “Other than meeting the faculty staff at the University of Michigan – who are amazing – I got to meet and interact with world leaders in the economics subdiscipline of my interest.”

He concluded by stating that this is a rare opportunity for scholars, and although competitive, he believes it is worth applying for. “Although I was the first from the UFS to attend, I know that the August to December 2022 cohort has another UFS staff member, which is great. My wish would be for our university to be represented annually.”

News Archive

Extending new discoveries in the deep subsurface – UFS paper published in Nature Communications

2015-11-30

Scanning electron microscopy of some of the Eukarya recovered from two different mines. (a) Dochmiotrema sp. (Plathyelminthes), (b) A. hemprichi (Annelida), (c) Mylonchulus brachyurus (Nematoda), (d) Amphiascoides (Arthropoda). Scale bar, 50 µm (a,b), 100 µm (c), 20 µm (d).

Following the discovery of the first Eukarya in the deep subsurface (Nature, 2010) by a research group from the Department of Microbial, Biochemical, and Food Biotechnology at the University of the Free State (UFS) and their international collaborators, intense interest has developed in understanding the diversity of more complex organisms living in these extreme environments.

Prof Gaetan Borgonie from Extreme Life Isyensya, together with a group of UFS researchers, took this research further, resulting in a paper on this research released in Nature Communications – impact factor 11.47. This paper is an extension of the first reports of more complex life at great depths, and their abilities to survive these harsh conditions.

Ten authors from the UFS contributed with the array of expertise needed to define this discovery. The group was supported by staff from the different mining groups, long-term leading collaborators from the USA and Canada, and the idea specialist driver of the paper, Prof Borganie.

“After a sampling campaign that lasted more than two years, we identified that Platyhelminthes, Rotifera, Annelida and Arthropoda are thriving at 1.4 km depths in fissure water up to 12,000-years old in the South African mines of Driefontein and Kopanang,” said Prof Borgonie, who was appointed as associated researcher in the Department of Microbial, Biochemical, and Food Biotechnology.

This paper really opens a “can of worms” so to speak. According to Prof Esta van Heerden from the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology at the UFS they extended to define protozoa and fungi. “However, they are present in low numbers,” she said.

Characterisation of the different species reveals that many are opportunistic organisms. In house-adapted video equipment was used to film inside the fissure for the home of the organisms.

This is the first-known study to demonstrate the in situ distribution of biofilms on fissure rock faces using video documentation. Calculations suggest that food, not dissolved oxygen, is the limiting factor for population growth. The discovery of a group of complex multicellular organisms in the underground has important implications for the search for life on other planets in our solar system.

More articles

The strange beasts that live in solid rock deep underground
A microscopic ‘zoo’ is found deep, deep underground

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