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02 November 2023
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Story Kekeletso Makau
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Photo SUPPLIED
The UFS Heads of Mission Breakfast event attracted a distinguished delegation of foreign diplomatic missions.
The second Heads of Diplomatic Mission breakfast was hosted by the University of the Free State (UFS) in collaboration with the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) in Pretoria, South Africa on 26 October 2023.
The event served as an opportunity to position the UFS as a preferred partner for international collaboration in higher education, research, and innovation – following the success of the inaugural event in 2022. More than ten diplomatic missions were represented by distinguished foreign mission representatives who shared in the deliberations on this year’s theme, namely partnerships and collaborations.
The keynote address was delivered by the UFS Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Francis Petersen, with contributing presentations from MISTRA researcher Laurence Caromba, UFS Professor of Pharmacology, Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, and Senior Lecturer from the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies, Dr Grey Magaiza. A key goal of Prof Petersen’s presentation was to highlight the benefits of reciprocal collaboration and co-creation of knowledge with international partners, including industry partners. Contributing presentations posited the UFS as a partner of interest in research, innovation, and technology in the international arena and showcased the value of university and diplomatic partnerships in support of the UFS Internationalisation Strategy and Vision 130.
Caromba, a MISTRA researcher, reiterated the importance of collaboration between universities, research institutes, and the diplomatic community, further reaffirming the partnership value proposition entrenched in the UFS-MISTRA collaboration in co-hosting this year’s event. MISTRA, a renowned influential think tank, served as an excellent partner for the event.
The UFS currently boasts more than 100 vibrant international partnerships and is the incumbent coordinator of large EU-funded Erasmus+ projects among South African universities, with UFS researchers having co-authored more than 5 000 scientific publications with universities worldwide (2018-2022).
An engaging question-and-answer session concluded with insights and further action items for continued engagement post the event.
Famous mineralogists visit UFS Geology
2017-04-25
From the left: Prof Marian Tredoux, Associate
Professor at the UFS Department of Geology;
Prof Giorgio Garuti; from the University of Leoben,
Dr Federica Zaccarini, also from the
University of Leoben and Dr Freddie Roelofse,
Head of the Department of Geology at the UFS.
Photo: Rulanzen Martin
Years of academic friendship and collaboration is what makes Prof Giorgio Garuti and Dr Federica Zaccarini return to the University of the Free State (UFS) every so often.
The world-renowned academic duo from the University of Leoben in Austria were guest lecturers at the UFS Department of Geology. “We are here because we have known Professor Marian Tredoux and the Geology Department, for a long time. We are really happy to be here, and to be given the opportunity to present talks,” said Dr Zaccarini. The two are experts in platinum-group element mineralogy and each has given their surname to minerals namely, the Garutiite and Zaccariniite minerals.
Visit great advantage for research
They are acclaimed experts on very small minerals (smaller than a hundredth of a millimetre) with emphasis on platinum group elements in chrome-rich rocks. “Their visit is a great advantage for us. We also conduct research on these minerals and can learn from them,” said Prof Marian Tredoux, affiliated researcher at the Department of Geology.
Dr Zaccarini gave a lecture on Chromitites, and associated platinum-group elements, in ophiolites on Wednesday 5 April 2017 and Dr Garuti presented a lecture on Uralian-Alaskan complexes: a puzzling source of platinum, on Thursday 6 April 2017. During the talks they examined the association of the platinum-group minerals with chromite, rather than sulphide, and how this association can lead to the formation of unusual platinum-group element ores.
Collaboration on various academic papers
They and Prof Tredoux have collaborated on various research articles over the past four years, which have been published in various important international scientific journals. “These journals play an important role in calculating the H-scale which measures how important a researcher’s work is on an international scale,” said Prof Tredoux.