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Dr Mutshidzi Mulondo’s global achievements highlight UFS’ Vision 130 goal of excellence

20 June 2024 | Story Jacky Tshokwe | Photo Suplied

The University of the Free State (UFS) takes immense pride in the remarkable achievements of Dr Mutshidzi Mulondo, an academic in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Her international recognition and appointments not only exemplify her dedication to academic excellence and leadership but also reflect the UFS’ commitment to nurturing researchers who are globally competitive and internationally well connected, aligning perfectly with Vision 130.

Dr Mulondo was recently appointed to the International Council of Advisers as council member in the Golden Key International Honour Society. Golden Key, the world's largest collegiate honour society, selects the top 15% of high academic achievers in a college or university. In this role, Dr Mulondo will represent South Africa and oversee more than 20 (all) academic institutional chapters in South Africa. Her passion for academic excellence and leadership development is evident, as she strives to nurture these qualities among students, further ensuring that they remain socially engaged, in the spirit of ubuntu. “Education is one of the keys to eradicating poverty. While academic excellence can set graduates apart, we must continue to encourage and celebrate this excellence among our students and youth – not just this Youth Month but every other month. I am honoured to amplify an organisation such as Golden Key that shares these values,” says Dr Mulondo.

This commitment to academic and leadership excellence is a cornerstone of the UFS’ mission. The strategic objectives aim to enhance research capabilities and promote leadership, creating an environment where students and staff can thrive and make significant contributions to society.

Dr Mulondo’s recent accomplishments extend beyond her council and advisory role. She was awarded an impact-oriented grant for emerging researchers under the University Partnership Initiative, allowing her to strengthen her collaborative research partnership with the Appalachian State University (AppState). As a Public Health visiting scholar at AppState’s Beaver College of Health Sciences, she worked with academic host Dr Tandrea Carter, and collaborators Prof Martie Thompson and Prof Adam Hege. Her visit in the last term of 2023 culminated in a presentation of preliminary findings at the Global Symposium, USA. This public health partnership highlights the continuing collaboration initiated during her time as a Mandela Washington Fellow in 2022. This partnership underscores the UFS’ commitment to global engagement and fostering partnerships that enhance educational and research agenda.

Her global impact is further recognised, as she was selected globally as one of 10 Reimagining Healthcare Scholars by Novartis in 2023. Representing South Africa, she joined young global scholars at the One Young World Summit in the United Kingdom. The summit gathered delegates from 192 countries to address pressing global issues such as mental health, climate change, and food security. “As emerging scholars, it is essential to stay engaged locally and globally if we must remain innovative,” says Dr Mulondo, who is now a One Young World Ambassador. Her participation underscores the UFS’ dedication to nurturing staff members who address global challenges and aligns with the vision of fostering academic excellence and social responsibility.

“It is no surprise that Dr Mulondo has been appointed and selected for these various global roles and accolades, as she has continued to display the UFS Vision 130’s values of academic and leadership excellence on a global stage, further evidenced by her selection to the university’s Emerging Scholar Accelerator Programme (ESAP),” says Prof Joyce Tsoka-Gwegweni, Vice-Dean: Research and Head of Public Health. This advanced residential programme identifies the most promising academics who have obtained a doctoral degree within the last five years. Dr Mulondo’s dedication to academic excellence and leadership is commendable.

Reflecting on her journey as an emerging researcher in the newly established Division of Public Health, Dr Mulondo expressed gratitude for the supportive environment at the UFS. “I am grateful for the enabling environment that the UFS provides to emerging researchers and academics through programmes such as ESAP. I look forward to continued growth and I continue to be fuelled by my favourite passages of Scripture. ‘Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith and in purity.’ For the people who know their God will truly be strong and will carry out great exploits.” (1 Timothy 4:12; Daniel 11:32).

News Archive

UFS physicists publish in prestigious Nature journal

2017-10-16

Description: Boyden Observatory gravitational wave event Tags: Boyden Observatory, gravitational wave event, Dr Brian van Soelen, Hélène Szegedi, multi-wavelength astronomy
Hélène Szegedi and Dr Brian van Soelen are scientists in the
Department of Physics at the University of the Free State.
Photo: Charl Devenish

In August 2017, the Boyden Observatory in Bloemfontein played a major role in obtaining optical observations of one of the biggest discoveries ever made in astrophysics: the detection of an electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave event.

An article reporting on this discovery will appear in the prestigious science journal, Nature, in October 2017. Co-authors of the article, Dr Brian van Soelen and Hélène Szegedi, are from the Department of Physics at the University of the Free State (UFS). Both Dr Van Soelen and Szegedi are researching multi-wavelength astronomy.

Discovery is the beginning of a new epoch in astronomy

Dr van Soelen said: “These observations and this discovery are the beginning of a new epoch in astronomy. We are now able to not only undertake multi-wavelength observations over the whole electromagnetic spectrum (radio up to gamma-rays) but have now been able to observe the same source in both electromagnetic and gravitational waves.”

Until recently it was only possible to observe the universe using light obtained from astronomical sources. This all changed in February 2016 when LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) stated that for the first time they had detected gravitational waves on 14 September 2015 from the merger of two black holes. Since then, LIGO has announced the detection of two more such mergers. A fourth was just reported (27 September 2017), which was the first detected by both LIGO and Virgo. However, despite the huge amount of energy released in these processes, none of this is detectable as radiation in any part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Since the first LIGO detection astronomers have been searching for possible electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave detections.

Large international collaboration of astronomers rushed to observe source

On 17 August 2017 LIGO and Virgo detected the first ever gravitational waves resulting from the merger of two neutron stars. Neutron star mergers produce massive explosions called kilonovae which will produce a specific electromagnetic signature. After the detection of the gravitational wave, telescopes around the world started searching for the optical counterpart, and it was discovered to be located in an elliptical galaxy, NGC4993, 130 million light years away. A large international collaboration of astronomers, including Dr Van Soelen and Szegedi, rushed to observe this source.

At the Boyden Observatory, Dr Van Soelen and Szegedi used the Boyden 1.5-m optical telescope to observe the source in the early evening, from 18 to 21 August. The observations obtained at Boyden Observatory, combined with observations from telescopes in Chile and Hawaii, confirmed that this was the first-ever detection of an electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave event. Combined with the detection of gamma-rays with the Fermi-LAT telescope, this also confirms that neutron star mergers are responsible for short gamma-ray bursts.

The results from these optical observations are reported in A kilonova as the electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational-wave source published in Nature in October 2017.

“Our paper is one of a few that will be submitted by different groups that will report on this discovery, including a large LIGO-Virgo paper summarising all observations. The main results from our paper were obtained through the New Technology Telescope, the GROND system, and the Pan-STARRS system. The Boyden observations helped to obtain extra observations during the first 72 hours which showed that the light of the source decreased much quicker than was expected for supernova, classifying this source as a kilonova,” Dr Van Soelen said.

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