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Building a research career with global impact

13 July 2023 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Samkelo Fetile

A visiting scholar from Trinity College Dublin in Ireland visited the University of the Free State (UFS) to work with staff members from the UFS Transformation of the Professoriate Mentoring Programme on identifying collaborations, writing, and building a research career.

Prof Catherine Comiskey, a professor in Healthcare Statistics from the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Trinity College Dublin and Academic Director of CHARM-EU – an EU-funded academic programme – held a writing retreat for participants in the Transformation of the Professoriate Mentoring Programme in the last week of June. She also worked with individual members to identify potential European and UK collaborators on various research projects. On Friday 30 June, she presented a lecture on building a research career with global impact.

Encouraging staff members

According to Dr Henriëtte van den Berg, Manager: Transformation of the Professoriate Mentoring Programme, Prof Comiskey encouraged colleagues to develop a research and publication strategy to ensure that they optimise the work they are doing, to look for opportunities to collaborate with colleagues across different disciplines, and to work together on publications and the supervision of postgraduate students.

“She also emphasised the importance of collaborating with people in industry, as they often have a rich source of data that is publishable. She highlighted the importance of being an ethical researcher. The workshop participants benefited from her passion and broad knowledge to start planning collaborations and to reflect on how they can make the work they are already doing work more for them. A group of workshop participants has already started working on a systematic review that they will conduct in collaboration with Prof Comiskey,” said Dr Van den Berg.

Share expertise

Prof Comiskey facilitated online writing interventions for the colleagues of the mentoring programme during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. She was invited to the campus to share her expertise in quantitative methodology and transdisciplinary work.

Prof Comiskey completed a PhD in Mathematics and coordinates many interdisciplinary research teams, comprising applied mathematicians, statisticians, psychologists, medical doctors, sociologists, anthropologists, nurses, computer scientists, and healthcare employees. She has been selected as one of five international experts nominated by the European Commission to serve on the International Scientific Committee of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

She has 30 years’ experience of teaching, research, postgraduate supervision, and teaching to specialists and non-specialists in all areas of applied statistics, mathematics, and epidemiology. She is also a seasoned academic leader, having served as Research Director at Trinity College, Dublin for many years.

CHARM-EU is an EU-funded academic programme spanning five European universities to develop, run, and evaluate a new EU-wide model for Universities of the Future. This involves a new transdisciplinary master’s degree that addresses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

News Archive

Top matriculants for Kovsies

2014-01-24

From left are: Saneliswe Khambule, Lungile Mkhungo, Jannie de Wet, Anje Venter, Siqiniseko Buthelezi and Abrille Beukes.
Photo: Hannes Pieterse

Hailing from top schools in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), Naushad Mayat, Lungile Mkhungo and Siqiniseko Buthelezi share 20 distinctions between them. Leaving the province of the Zulu Kingdom for Bloemfontein, all three are at Kovsies to study as doctors.

Naushad obtained eight distinctions, an achievement that placed him in the top ten matriculants in KwaZulu-Natal. The former learner from Glenwood High School in Durban came fourth in the Umlazi District and tenth overall in the province. Enrolling for a degree in Medicine, he will join the list of outstanding health professionals Kovsies produce every year.

Lungile, who matriculated from Kingsway High School, attained seven distinctions and her average percentage was 90%. She received distinctions in English – 90%, IsiZulu – 94%, Mathematics – 83%, History – 92%, Physics – 89%, Life Sciences – 89% and Life Orientation – 93%. Lungile is not only clever, but also performed well in sports at her school, participating in netball, soccer and athletics. This future doctor is a proud resident of Wag-'n-Bietjie residence.

Siqiniseko made history at his school, Maritzburg College, becoming the first black Head Prefect at the 150-year-old school, the oldest boys' high school in KZN and one of the oldest schools in South Africa. A gifted learner excelling in sport, culture and academics, Siqiniseko obtained five distinctions (English, Afrikaans, Life Orientation, Accounting and Life Sciences). His sporting prowess has seen him captaining Maritzburg College's first rugby team, as well as the KZN Academy team.

The three are joined by fellow KwaZulu-Natal resident, Saneliswe Khambule, Namibian Abrille Beukes and Free Staters Anje Venter and Jannie de Wet.

Saneliswe, a former learner of Menzi High School in Umlazi, received five distinctions in her final-year exams. The Emily Hobhouse resident registered for a Forensic Science degree and plans on doing her doctoral studies in this exciting career field.

Abrille Beukes is another future doctor and is all the way from Windhoek in Namibia. Abrille obtained a ‘one’ in all her subjects, the highest possible mark in the Namibian school system. The Windhoek-born student received high levels in Mathematics, Accounting, Physical Science, Biology, Afrikaans and English. As second best student in her home country, she will register for a Medicine degree.

Anja, the Free State’s top achiever, received an average percentage of 93% in the matric final exams. The former Eunice student obtained nine distinctions, an achievement that placed her in the national top 100 matriculants. Anja enrolled for a BSc Actuarial Science degree and will be joined in class by former school friend, Jannie de Wet, who obtained a whopping ten distinctions. Jannie and Anja attended Universitas Primary School together, with Jannie finishing his school career at Jim Fouché High School, and just like Anja, he will also enrol for a BSc Actuarial Science degree.

Jannie obtained distinctions in Afrikaans, English, Mathematics, Mathematics (third paper), Life Orientation, Accounting, Physical Science, Life Science, Economics and Information Technology. Jannie is also the Volksblad and the University of the Free State’s 2013 Matriculant of the Year.

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