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Guest lecture: the role of higher education in strong democracies

05 April 2024 | Story DR NITHA RAMNATH

The Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Free State, Prof Francis Petersen, has the pleasure of inviting you to a guest lecture presented by H.E. Dr Reuben E Brigety, the United States Ambassador to South Africa.

Date: Tuesday 23 April 2024

Time: 15:00-16:00

Venue: Centenary Complex, Bloemfontein Campus

RSVP here by no later than 19 April 2024.

About the speaker

Reuben E Brigety II was confirmed as the 29th United States Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa on 21 July 2022.

Previously, he served as the 17th Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South and Mayor of Sewanee from June 2020 until December 2021, and as the Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs of the George Washington University from 2015 to 2020. Ambassador Brigety’s most recent diplomatic assignment was serving as the US Representative to the African Union and US Permanent Representative to the UN Economic Commission for Africa from September 2013 to September 2015. Previously, Ambassador Brigety served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of African Affairs and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.

A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Ambassador Brigety also held appointments as Assistant Professor of Government and Politics at George Mason University and at the School of International Service at the American University between August 2003 and April 2009. In addition, Ambassador Brigety was a researcher with the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch (HRW) from August 2001 to May 2003, where he conducted research missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Before joining HRW, Ambassador Brigety was an active-duty US naval officer and held several staff positions in the Pentagon and in fleet support units.

Ambassador Brigety is a 1995 Distinguished Midshipman Graduate of the US Naval Academy, where he earned a BSc in Political Science (with merit), served as the Brigade Commander, and received the Thomas G Pownall Scholarship. He also holds an MPhil and a PhD in International Relations from the University of Cambridge, England, as well as a Doctor of Humane Letters (honoris causa) from Old Dominion University. Ambassador Brigety is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a recipient of the council’s International Affairs Fellowship, and a fellow of the American Academy of Diplomacy.He is married to Dr Leelie Selassie, and together they have two sons.

News Archive

Prestige Scholar hosts Prof John Helliwell of Manchester University

2015-12-08

From left is Prof John R. Helliwell (School of Chemistry, University of Manchester), Dr Madeleine Helliwell (School of Chemistry, University of Manchester), Prof Andre Roodt (Department of Chemistry, University of the Free State) and Dr Alice Brink (Department of Chemistry, University of the Free State).
Photo: Steven Collett

At the invitation of Dr Alice Brink of the Department of Chemistry, Prof John Helliwell, the 2015 Max Perutz Prize winner, and his wife, Dr Madeleine Helliwell, visited the University of the Free State (UFS).
The Helliwells, both chemists of note, took part in a series of lectures and exchanges on the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses.
This visit from 9-19 November 2015 was the consequence of Dr Brink’s participation in the Vice-Chancellor’s Prestige Scholars Programme (PSP) initiative to encourage the broadening of the international footprint of the next generation of scholars in the academy.

Two year collaboration

Dr Brink and Prof Helliwell from Manchester University have a standing collaboration going back two years. Dr Brink, an NRF Thuthuka grant holder and a member of the PSP since 2013, has spent almost eight months in Manchester, collaborating with Prof Helliwell on her study of the successful interaction of rhenium tricarbonyl complexes with proteins determined via protein crystallography.
Their collaboration resulted from the close association of Prof Helliwell and Prof Andre Roodt from the UFS Department of Chemistry, both former presidents of the European Crystallographic Association.

Sharing academic expertise

Prof Helliwell, the 2014 American Crystallographic Association Patterson Award winner for his “pioneering contributions to the global development of the instrumentation, methods and applications of synchrotron radiation in macromolecular crystallography”, gave three lectures in the Department of Chemistry, two on the Boemfontein Campus, and the other on the Qwaqwa Campus on 13 November 2015.

Dr Helliwell, former co-editor of the Acta Crystallographica Section C: Crystal Structure Communications journal, consulted with postgraduate students from the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

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