Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Categories
UFS News Media Release Research
Years
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Months
January February March April July May June August September October November December
Previous Archive
09 November 2023 | Story André Damons | Photo SUPPLIED
Prof Atangana
Prof Abdon Atangana, a professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of the Free State (UFS), is the highest-ranked UFS scientist included in Stanford University’s World’s Top 2% Scientists list.

A professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of the Free State (UFS) is again the highest-ranked scientist from the institution included in Stanford University’s annual ranking of the top 2% of scientists in the world. 

Prof Abdon Atangana from the UFS’s Institute for Groundwater is ranked number one in applied mathematics, mathematical physics, mathematics, and statistics in the world, and number 260 in all of science, technology, and engineering in the Stanford University World’s Top 2% Scientists list. He is also ranked highest (5 620) of all the UFS scientists included in the career-long data set. 

‘Africans in Africa can impact the world’

“The ranking provides us with the impact of our outputs, and it shows that Africans can contribute to the development of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics while still in Africa,” Prof Atangana said. “This also shows that Africans in Africa can have impact on the world. My motivation is to tell the next generation that Africans do not always need to graduate from the top universities of the global North to make a global impact.  

“We must work hard to make our African universities reach the same level of those from the global North, such that a student from the global North will wish to enroll in our universities. The development of our continent does not rest on sport, music, and so forth alone, but on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Having the best scientists, mathematicians, and engineers in the world in Africa should be the strive of all Africans.” 

Three of the UFS’s SARChI Research Chairs have also been included in this list: Prof Hendrik Swart, Chair: Solid-state Luminescent and Advanced Materials (Applied Physics, ranked 40 269 in the single-year dataset); Prof Melanie Walker, Chair: Higher Education and Human Development (ranked 68 337); and Prof Maryke Labuschagne, Chair: Disease Resistance and Quality in Field Crops (Plant Sciences, 165 780).  

Other UFS scientists included in the single-year data set are: Prof John M. Carranza (Geology, 4 837); Prof Muhammad Altaf Khan ( Applied Mathematics, 6 366); Prof Maxim Finkelstein (Statistics/ Mathematical Statistics, 63 394); Prof Marianne Reid (School of Nursing, 72 861); Prof John Owen (Centre for Development Support, 103 368); Prof Brownhilder Neneh (Department of Business Management, 73 635); Prof Jorma Hölsä (Research Fellow: Department of Physics, 88 833); Prof Johann Beukes (Philosophy & Classics, 6 547 764); Rian Venter, (829 709); Dr Yuri Marusik (Zoology and Entomology, 553 619); Prof Robert Schall (Department of Mathematical Statistics and Actuarial Science, 276 681); Prof Deborah Posel (Department of Sociology, 275 535); Dr Vijay Kumar (Physics, 274 541); Dr Abhay Prakash Mishra (Pharmacology, 229 625); Prof RE Kroon (Physics, 226 554); Dr Krishnan Anand (Chemical Pathology, 235 300); Prof Andrew Marston (Chemistry, 147 147); Dr Seda Igret Araz (Applied Mathematics,125 824); Prof Jeanet Conradie (Chemistry, 106 521); Prof Louis Scott (Plant Sciences, 73 874); Prof Johan Grobbelaar (Plant Sciences, 97 722); Prof David Motaung (Physics, 53 553); Dr Samuel Nambile Cumber (Health Systems Research and Development, 555 563). 

Career-long data set 

The Stanford University rankings also include a list of the top 2% of world-class researchers based on citations over their full careers. Scientists are classified into 22 scientific fields and 174 sub-fields. Field- and subfield-specific percentiles are also provided for all scientists with at least five published papers. Career-long data is updated to the end of 2021, and single recent-year data pertain to citations received during calendar year 2021. The selection is based on the top 100 000 scientists by C-score (with and without self-citations) or a percentile rank of 2% or above in the sub-field.

The career-long data set includes the names of:

Prof Carranza (17 466); Prof Scott (55 882); Prof Reid (57 173); Prof Hölsä (64 402); Prof Grobbelaar (71 094); Prof Walker (78 239); Prof Andrew Marston (Chemistry, 84 484); Prof Schall (90 268); HA Snyman (Animal, Wildlife and Grassland Sciences, 96 374); Prof Swart (103 895); Robert WM Frater Cardiovascular Research Centre (111 896); Prof Frederick Kruger (Centre for Environmental Management,117 971); Prof Finkelstein (124 118); Prof Johan Visser (Geology, 125 331); Prof James C du Preez (Biotechnology, 168 841); Prof Posel (172 295); Prof Conradie (178 157); Prof Michael D MacNeil (Dairy and Animal Science, 184 193); Prof Khan (201 101); Prof Owen (262 897). 

“The representation of our researchers from a variety of disciplinary domains in this prestigious ranking, is confirmation of their excellence, impact, and the global esteem they hold. UFS is proud to be a home to scholars in our midst who take us incrementally forward as an institution because of their cutting-edge research,” said Prof Vasu Reddy, UFS Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Internationalisation. 

  • Prof Atangana has also been shortlisted as one of the finalists for the prestigious Alkebulan Immigrants Impact Awards (AIIA) 2023, in the South African Flag Carrier category. Voting started on 1 November, and the award ceremony is set to take place on 23 November in Johannesburg. 
Prof Melanie Walker, Chair: Higher Education and Human Development, is ranked 68 337 in the single-year data set.
Prof Melanie Walker, Chair: Higher Education and Human Development, is ranked 68 337 in the single-year data set.
Prof Brownhilder Neneh, from the Department of Business Management and Vice-Dean for Research Engagement and Internationalisation, is ranked 73 635.
Prof Brownhilder Neneh, from the Department of Business Management and Vice-Dean for Research Engagement and Internationalisation, is ranked 73 635.
Prof Marianne Reid from the School of Nursing is ranked 72 861.
Prof Marianne Reid from the School of Nursing is ranked 72 861.

News Archive

Doll parent project exposes learners to real-life issues of responsible reproductive health
2016-11-01

Description: Doll parent project Tags: Doll parent project

Princess Gaboilelwe Motshabi,
Princess Gabo Foundation, Maki Lesia,
School of Nursing, Zenzele Mdletshe,
Internationalisation office, Masters of
Education students from Rutgers University
and study leader.


With the alarming rate of teenage pregnancies in secondary schools, a concerned teacher approached University of the Free State (UFS) School of Nursing in 2013, and in 2015, the Reproductive Health Education Project (RRHEP) was established in collaboration with fourth-year Midwifery students, the Princess Gabo Foundation and the UFS Community Engagement Directorate.

Empowering learners to make responsible reproductive health choices was the primary objective, which got final-year nursing students involved in the Doll-Parenting Project as part of their Service Learning Module. To simulate parenting, boys and girls in Grade Eight were given dolls to take care of as their “baby” for a given period of time. After an information session with parents and guardians, the project took off at Moroka High School in Thaba Nchu and Lekhulong High School in Mangaung. The Princess Gabo Foundation, an NGO operating in the Thaba Nchu community, which supports maternal health programmes, provided the dolls, kangaroo wraps, and diaries in which learners recorded their daily experiences of caring for a baby.

Teen parenting – a challenging experience

Learners were required to calculate how much it would cost to care for a baby, the cost of buying nappies, formula milk (if not breast feeding), doctor’s visits, and medicine. The project was supported by teachers in various subject classes, and learners were encouraged to express themselves through writing of poems or essays about how it feels to be a teen parent.

Dr Delene Botha, lecturer at the School of Nursing, said there was a need to establish a sustainable research project that would attract funding. By adding some of the missing components and drawing on other disciplines such as Sociology and Psychiatry, the project was expected to be extended to meet the needs of other stakeholders including teachers, parents and the community at large.

With cellphones and data provided by the Community Engagement office, the “parenting practice” involved receiving SMS messages from nursing students during odd times of the day to remind them about the needs of the baby; such as wet nappies, the “baby” not feeling well and to be soothed.

Sensitising learners yields success

In evaluating their performance, appointed “police learners” became the eyes and ears of the community to observe and report on how “parents” treated their “babies”. Statements from participants and feedback showed Incidences of negligence and the feeling of embarrassment from being a teen parent. The report indicated that learners felt that having a baby while still at school was not a good idea. The project concluded with a debate on the subject.

As part of the programme, a group of postgraduate Education students from Rutgers University in the US, visited Chief Moroka High School and received first-hand information from their interaction with the learners from which they created digital stories of their Community Engagement experience and took these back with them.

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept