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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

Chemistry research group receives international recognition

2016-10-28

Description: Chemistry research group Tags: Chemistry research group

Dr Carla Pretorius mounts microcrystals with
Dumisani Kama while Pennie Mokolokolo
observe the technique.
Photo: Supplied

Crystals and crystallography form an integrated part of our daily lives, from bones and teeth, to medicines and viruses, new catalysts, jewellery, colour pigments, chocolates, analysing rocks on the moon and Mars, electronics, batteries, metal blades in airplane turbines, panels for solar energy and many more.

In spite of this, not many people know much about X-ray crystallography, although it is probably one of the greatest innovations of the 20th century, spanning the sciences. That is why this discipline is actively researched by a number of tertiary institutions around the globe as well as the Inorganic Chemistry Group of the Department of Chemistry at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Research by the Inorganic Chemistry Group includes:
•   clever design of model medicines to better detect cancer and study heart, bone and brain defects;
•   production of new compounds for making new and better automobile fuels and decrease carbon dioxide in the atmosphere;
•   generation and purification of new South African mineral resources for metals widely used in turbines which use wind energy.

A group of UFS students have received acknowledgement for their research at six international venues in the past few months.

Posters in Cameroon
Twelve postgraduate students, together with Prof André Roodt, Head of the Inorganic Chemistry division at the UFS, delivered three oral presentations, nine posters, one plenary and one keynote lecture abroad.

Four UFS students - Nina Morogoa, Pheello Nkoe, Alebel Bilay, and Mohammed Elmakki - who delivered posters at the First Pan African Conference on Crystallography in Dschang, Cameroon, received prizes for their presentations.

School and conference in Croatia
Students Orbett Alexander and Dumisani Kama were selected to attend the intense and demanding Third European Crystallographic School in Bôl, Croatia. Both Kama, Alexander and Prof Roodt gave oral presentations at the 24th Croatian-Slovenian Crystallographic Meeting at Brac Island, Croatia.

Kama, together with Dr Ferdi Groenewald, Dr Carla Pretorius and Pennie Mokolokolo, also attended the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France. The ESRF is a centre of excellence for fundamental and innovation-driven research. The storage ring at this laser facility can generate X-rays 100 billion times brighter than typical medical and laboratory X-ray sources.

Research in Switzerland
Kama and Mokolokolo also spent one month on research visits at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Both Kama and Alexander were invited to present their research orally to the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry in Zurich, headed by Prof Roger Alberto.

In Basel, Switzerland, Dr Ferdi Groenewald, Dr Renier Koen, and Dr Truidie Venter all presented their research at the 30th European Crystallographic Meeting.

Prof Roodt said: “It is incredibly important that our postgraduate students get the chance to interact, discuss, and be taught by the best in the world and realise that hard work on basic and applied chemistry processes leads to broader recognition. The delegates to these international venues came from more than 60 countries and took note of our students work. With these young researchers, our future at the UFS and at Inorganic Chemistry is in good hands”.

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