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06 November 2023
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Story MBALI MABOEA
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Photo SUPPLIED
The Department of Geography on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus recently played host to the Society of South African Geographers Conference (SSAG 2023), which gathered more than 100 students over three days.
Fostering academic growth, collaboration, and inspiration among students and researchers in the field of geography, the Department of Geography on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus recently played host to the Society of South African Geographers Conference (SSAG 2023), which gathered more than 100 students over three days.
Following a five-year hiatus, the three-day conference comprised student proposal presentations in different fields: human geography, environment geography, geoinformatics, and physical geography, divided into breakaway sessions over two days. Furthermore, day three of the annual conference included an excursion to the Basotho Cultural Village and Clarens.
The three-day annual student conference focused on different themes presented by two main speakers. The topic of the first keynote speaker, Dr Mahlomola Daemane, General Manager of the SANParks Arid Research Unit, focused on the contemporary conservation, transition, and relevance of science in policy and decision making.
The second keynote speaker was Dr Felicia Akinyemi, a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow affiliated with the Institute of Geography at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Her work focuses on the intersection of geoinformatics, global change, and sustainability. Dr Akinyemi focused her talk on the integrative geospatial methods and metrics for sustainable land use. She introduced different techniques and metrics and gave students insight in early-career African research.
Speaking about the success of the conference, Nthebohiseng Sekhele, Geography Lecturer on the Qwaqwa Campus and chair of the organising committee, said, “The local organising committee was also very impressed with the quality of presentations from our postgraduate students in Geography, as well as the robust discussions that happened during the parallel sessions in the two days of the conference. We had a positive response of physical and online participation from many universities across South Africa. We are pleased that we have achieved our goal with this conference, which is to inspire the next generation of geographers.”
Student receives prestigious international award for article
2008-08-07
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Desmé Human, an honours student in Quantity Surveying at the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Quantity Surveying and Construction Management, is the newest receiver of the Kenneth K. Humphreys Award. This award, which is seen as the most prestigious international award of its kind, was awarded to her for the most outstanding Quantity Surveying article submitted by a student or a young member of the International Cost Engineering Council (ICEC) for the period 2006-2008. The article, entitled: "Implementation of affirmative action and black economic empowerment in the construction industry", was judged by an international referee as an outstanding article which is worthy to be presented at an international conference. The award was handed to her at the 52nd annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) International and a world conference of the ICEC held in Toronto, Canada. Here she is with Prof. Basie Verster, departmental chairperson of the Department of Quantity Surveying and Construction Management at the UFS.
Photo: Supplied
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