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UFS students honoured at 2024 Women in Science Awards

23 August 2024 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied

Thandokuhle Gama, Dr Glen Tylor and Anele Mthembu — Winners: Thandokuhle Gama (left) and Anele Mthembu (right), who were honoured with the DSI-Esther Mahlangu Master's Fellowship at the 2024 SAWiSA, with Dr Glen Taylor, Senior Director: Directorate Research Development (DRD), UFS.

Two postgraduate students from the University of the Free State (UFS) were honoured at this year’s Women in Science Awards (SAWiSA) hosted by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI).

Thandokuhle Gama, a Master of Medical Science student with specialisation in Pharmacology, and Anele Mthembu, who is working on her master’s degree in Disaster Management in the Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa (DIMTEC), are both recipients of the DSI-Esther Mahlangu Master's Fellowships.

This fellowship is awarded to women scientists and researchers who are pursuing their master’s or doctoral studies and already hold scholarships from the National Research Foundation or other DSI agencies. The fellowships for Gama and Mthembu are worth R75 000 each and can be used towards their tuition fees or to enhance academic programmes by covering the costs of attending conferences or specialised research materials and equipment required to complete their degrees.

Honouring Dr Esther Mahlangu

The prestigious 2024 SAWiSA, which honour the exceptional contributions of women to science, technology, engineering, mathematics and innovation (STEMI) in South Africa, took place on 15 August 2024 in Mbombela. The theme was “Transition towards an Innovation Economy: The Role of Women Leaders in STEM”.

This year, the awards honoured world-renowned artist, Dr Esther Mahlangu, by renaming this year's master's and doctoral fellowships the DSI-Esther Mahlangu Fellowships.

“I feel honoured and grateful for the recognition, although it's been difficult to process what it actually means. It has been an overwhelming experience. It came as a surprise, because when I applied, I was not sure what to expect because these are national awards with many other applicants,” says Gama.

She was nominated by Innocensia Mangoato, lecturer in the UFS Department of Pharmacology and a previous winner at the awards. Gama is doing research on medicinal plants that are used in traditional medicine to treat diabetes.

“Winning this award means that my work thus far is being recognised. It is all through God’s grace. I'm also grateful to everyone who has contributed towards my journey: my family, teachers, mentors and sponsors, and everyone else. It will allow me to continue to advance research in the field of diabetes treatment using traditional medicines or medicinal plants.”

Bettering lives

Mthembu, who was nominated by her mentor, Dr Tlou Daisy Raphela-Masuku, a lecturer at DIMTEC, says it is a fantastic feeling winning this award. “Before the awards, Dr Raphela-Masuku and I dreamt I could win the SAWiSA. But before then, I was surprised and grateful for being acknowledged by DSI as a finalist; I focused on being a DSI finalist, and that winning would be a bonus,” she says.

She continues: “It means a lot to me to win the DSI Master’s Fellowship, as it is a testimony of God’s grace in my life. It is the destiny for helpers God has placed in my life, including my mentor, supervisor, and the DIMTEC postgraduate school. We all won!”

Mthembu is working her master’s thesis on the integration of risk-informed development (RID) and nature-based solutions (NbS) into sustainable human settlements in eThekwini Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal.

“The overarching aim is to evaluate the integration of both these concepts into human settlements’ strategic planning to offer eThekwini Municipality innovative and ecosystem-based approaches to achieving sustainable and resilient human settlements and achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 on building resilient cities.

“I hope to publish my findings and contextualise the enabling environments for RID (EE4RID) Framework in eThekwini Municipality so they can make risk-informed decisions on development and human settlements to achieve SDG 11,” explains Mthembu.

Gama says the aim with her research is to determine if these medicinal plants can treat diabetes by stimulating stem cells to differentiate and become insulin-producing cells. She hopes that through this research diabetes treatment can advance from a level where it is being continuously managed, to a level where we can cure the disease.

News Archive

Extending new discoveries in the deep subsurface – UFS paper published in Nature Communications

2015-11-30

Scanning electron microscopy of some of the Eukarya recovered from two different mines. (a) Dochmiotrema sp. (Plathyelminthes), (b) A. hemprichi (Annelida), (c) Mylonchulus brachyurus (Nematoda), (d) Amphiascoides (Arthropoda). Scale bar, 50 µm (a,b), 100 µm (c), 20 µm (d).

Following the discovery of the first Eukarya in the deep subsurface (Nature, 2010) by a research group from the Department of Microbial, Biochemical, and Food Biotechnology at the University of the Free State (UFS) and their international collaborators, intense interest has developed in understanding the diversity of more complex organisms living in these extreme environments.

Prof Gaetan Borgonie from Extreme Life Isyensya, together with a group of UFS researchers, took this research further, resulting in a paper on this research released in Nature Communications – impact factor 11.47. This paper is an extension of the first reports of more complex life at great depths, and their abilities to survive these harsh conditions.

Ten authors from the UFS contributed with the array of expertise needed to define this discovery. The group was supported by staff from the different mining groups, long-term leading collaborators from the USA and Canada, and the idea specialist driver of the paper, Prof Borganie.

“After a sampling campaign that lasted more than two years, we identified that Platyhelminthes, Rotifera, Annelida and Arthropoda are thriving at 1.4 km depths in fissure water up to 12,000-years old in the South African mines of Driefontein and Kopanang,” said Prof Borgonie, who was appointed as associated researcher in the Department of Microbial, Biochemical, and Food Biotechnology.

This paper really opens a “can of worms” so to speak. According to Prof Esta van Heerden from the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology at the UFS they extended to define protozoa and fungi. “However, they are present in low numbers,” she said.

Characterisation of the different species reveals that many are opportunistic organisms. In house-adapted video equipment was used to film inside the fissure for the home of the organisms.

This is the first-known study to demonstrate the in situ distribution of biofilms on fissure rock faces using video documentation. Calculations suggest that food, not dissolved oxygen, is the limiting factor for population growth. The discovery of a group of complex multicellular organisms in the underground has important implications for the search for life on other planets in our solar system.

More articles

The strange beasts that live in solid rock deep underground
A microscopic ‘zoo’ is found deep, deep underground

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