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Prof John Klaasen appointed as Dean: Faculty of Theology and Religion at the UFS

01 April 2024 | Story Lacea Loader | Photo Sonia Small

Prof John Klaasen, newly appointed Dean: Theology and Religion at the UFS.

The University of the Free State (UFS) has appointed Prof John Klaasen as Dean: Faculty of Theology and Religion from 1 April 2024.

Prof Klaasen is Professor of Theology and has served two terms as Head of the Department of Religion and Theology at the University of the Western Cape. He also served as Professor in the Kjell Nordstokke Chair in Community Development at VID Specialized University in Norway and is Adjunct Professor at VID Specialized University.

“With his vast experience and involvement in research projects – nationally as well as internationally – Prof Klaasen will make a significant contribution to the Faculty of Theology and Religion and the university in general. This will also be valuable in support of the university’s Vision 130, which is an expression of our strategic intent to position the institution towards 2034 when the UFS will be 130 years old,” says Prof Francis Petersen, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the UFS.

As a practical theologian, the intersection between praxis and theory has occupied Prof Klaasen’s research for the past decade. He has researched and published extensively within theology, community development, and narrative. Aspects such as narrative, embedded knowledge, participation, reconciliation, and the non-rational tradition of knowledge are some of the areas that occupy his research outputs.

He is involved in numerous international research projects, which include a COST project with 17 European institutions, a project on reconciliation processes with institutions in Canada and Nordic countries, an international initiative on community development with various institutions in Europe, and a NORPART initiative with Norway and Malawi.

Community engaged scholarship forms a central part of his research and work at the intersection of religion and social justice. Prof Klaasen is involved in various community development projects, including homes for the aged, lay training, water issues, and lay theological education.

His teaching is situated within a socially just pedagogy, which puts the students at the centre of knowledge production. This innovative way of knowledge production intersects students, teachers, and the lecture room within a dynamic space of contextualisation.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to join such a prestigious institution and will endeavour to contribute to Vision 130 through commitment, innovation, trust, and ethical leadership – which represents the university’s commitment to be recognised by our peers and society as a top-tier university in South Africa, ranked among the best in the world,” says Prof Klaasen.

News Archive

Nobel Prize-winner presents first lecture at Vice-Chancellor’s prestige lecture series

2017-11-17

At the first lecture in the UFS Vice Chancellor’s Prestige Lecture series,
were from the left: Prof Jeanette Conradie, UFS Department of Chemistry;
Prof Michael Levitt, Nobel Prize-winner in Chemistry, biophysicist and
professor in structural biology at Stanford University; Prof Francis Petersen,
UFS Vice-Chancellor and Rector; and Prof Corli Witthuhn,
UFS Vice-Rector: Research.
Photo: Johan Roux

South African born biophysicist and Nobel Prize-winner in Chemistry, Prof Michael Levitt, paid a visit to the University of the Free Sate (UFS) as part of the Academy of Science of South Africa’s (ASSAf) Distinguished Visiting Scholars’ Programme.

Early this week the professor in structural biology at Stanford University in the US presented a captivating lecture on the Bloemfontein Campus on his lifetime’s work that earned him the Nobel Prize in 2013. His lecture launched the UFS Vice-Chancellor’s Prestige Lecture series, aimed at knowledge sharing within, and beyond our university boundaries.

Prof Levitt was one of the first researchers to conduct molecular dynamics simulations of DNA and proteins and developed the first software for this purpose. He received the prize for Chemistry, together with Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel, “for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems”.

Attending the lecture were members of UFS management, academic staff from a range of faculties and other universities as well as young researchers. “Multiscale modelling is very much based on something that makes common sense,” Prof Levitt explained. “And that is to makes things as simple as possible, but not simpler. Everything needs to have the right level of simplicity, that is not too simple, but not too complicated.”

An incredible mind
Prof Levitt enrolled for applied mathematics at the University of Pretoria at the age of 15. He visited his uncle and aunt in London after his first-year exams, and decided to stay on because they had a television, he claims. A series on molecular biology broadcast on BBC, sparked an interest that would lead Prof Levitt via Israel, and Cambridge, to the Nobel Prize stage – all of which turned out to be vital building blocks for his research career.

Technology to the rescue
The first small protein model that Prof Levitt built was the size of a room. But that exercise led to the birth of multiscale modelling of macromolecules. For the man on the street, that translates to computerised models used to simulate protein action, and reaction. With some adaptations, the effect of medication can be simulated on human protein in a virtual world.

“I was lucky to stand on the shoulder of giants,” he says about his accomplishments, and urges the young to be good and kind. “Be passionate about what you do, be persistent, and be original,” he advised.

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