Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

ScholarGPS honours Prof Hendrik Swart as highly ranked scholar

04 June 2024 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Kaleidoscope Studios

ScholarGPS awarded Prof Hendrik Swart, Senior Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of the Free State (UFS), Highly Ranked Scholar status.

ScholarGPS celebrates Highly Ranked Scholars™ for their performance in various fields, disciplines, and specialties. Prof Swart’s prolific publication record, the high impact of his work, and the outstanding quality of his scholarly contributions have placed him among the top 0,05% of all scholars worldwide.

Prof Swart received Highly Ranked Scholar status (Lifetime) for ranking 16th in the discipline of Phosphor. Highly Ranked Scholars™ – Lifetime refers to distinguished authors, including those who are currently active, retired, or deceased. These scholars are recognised for their exceptional lifetime scholarly contributions, placing them in the top 0,05% of all scholars. Their achievements are evaluated across four categories: overall (across all fields), within their specific field of study, within their particular discipline, and across all specialties they are associated with.

Additionally, Prof Swart received Highly Ranked Scholar status (prior five years) for ranking first in Condensed Matter Physics, 42nd in Physics, 155th in Sensor, 207th in Physical Science and Mathematics, and 969th in all fields.

Scientific profile and credibility

ScholarGPS is a California-based company that applies artificial intelligence, data mining, machine learning, and other data science techniques to its massive database of more than 200 million publications and 3 billion citations to rank more than 30 million scholars and 55 000 institutions worldwide. They categorise more than 200 million scholarly publications into specific academic specialties. These specialties are further organised into 177 disciplines and 14 overarching fields. As a result of this extensive classification effort, scholars who are considered highly ranked within their respective fields can now be identified with greater precision. This identification is done not only within each academic specialty, but also across disciplines and fields, providing a comprehensive view of scholarly achievement and expertise. This system allows for the identification of top scholars within various areas of academic research in a way that was not possible before.

Prof Swart, who is an NRF B1-rated researcher, currently also holds the SARChI Research Chair: Solid-state Luminescent and Advanced Materials (2023-2027). On receiving this award from ScholarGPS, he says it is always a privilege to be recognised as one of the top scholars in your specific field, especially at this late stage of his career.

Professionally, Prof Swart says this award may boost his scientific profile and credibility in the academic community, potentially leading to more collaborations and partnerships.

In the field of condensed matter physics, the impact of his work is specifically noteworthy in the study of defects and impurities within semiconductors, along with their practical applications in optoelectronic devices. Moreover, his significant contributions extend to understanding optical and electronic properties at the nanoscale, bearing implications for the development of semiconductor technology, including light-emitting diodes (LEDs), photovoltaic cells, and quantum dots.

Primarily focused on mentorship

He believes his successes in physics and advances in understanding the universe are the result of a combination of variables, including innovative research, collaboration and networking, mentorship, effective communication, persistence, and resilience. “I am primarily focused on mentorship, which is critical to developing the next generation of physicists and creating a supportive environment for learning and discovery, as well as conducting groundbreaking research and making novel discoveries that are critical to pushing the boundaries of physics. I am always searching for opportunities to collaborate with other scholars, both inside and outside my discipline, which will result in constructive exchange of ideas, interdisciplinary discoveries, and collective problem solving.”

News Archive

Dialogue between Science and Society series looks at forgiveness and reconciliation

2013-03-24

Taking part in the discussion on forgiveness and living reconciliation, were from left: Olga Macingwane, a survivor of the Worcester bombing of 1993; Dr Juliet Rogers, a Scholar on Remorse from the University of Melbourne in Australia and Dr Deon Snyman, Chairperson of the Worcester Hope and Reconciliation Process.
Photo: Mandi Bezuidenhout
24 March 2013

How do you, as a mother who lost her only daughter, forgive the man who claimed responsibility for the attack that killed her? How do you forget his crime while travelling with him across the world?

These were some of the questions posed to Jeanette Fourie at a Dialogue between Science and Society series on forgiveness and living reconciliation. Jeanette, whose daughter Lyndi was killed in an attack on the Heidelberg Pub in Cape Town in 1993, was one of three people telling their stories of forgiveness while dealing with traumatic experiences.

Sitting next to Letlapa Mphahlele, the man who owned up to the attack that killed her daughter, Jeanette spoke about their story of forgiveness traveling the world together, spreading the message of forgiveness and conciliation.

"Don't ever think you can forget, because that’s not possible. What you do with the pain is to find peace, and that's what forgiveness does. Forgiveness allows you to stop all the dialogue in your head on why he did it. You don't forget, you confront it and you deal with it."

Letlapa, Director of Operations of Apla, the military wing of the PAC at the time of Lyndi's death, spoke about dealing with the response to his crime. "Sometimes you wish that you were not forgiven, because now you have the great burden of proving that you are worthy of forgiveness."

Also telling her story of forgiveness was Olga Macingwane, a survivor of the Worcester bombing of 1993 in which four people were killed and sixty-seven others injured. Four people were sent to prison. In 2009 Olga met one of the perpetrators, Stefaans Coetzee, and what came out of that meeting, is her story.

"When I met Stefaans I was very angry, but when you sit down with somebody and listen to him or her, you find out what the reasons were that made him or her do something. I can say that I forgave him."

Facilitating the conversation, Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Senior Research Professor on Trauma, Forgiveness and Reconciliation, said the seminar was meant to get in touch with the truth that forgiveness is possible.

"Before we had the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa, the experts always said that forgiveness was not possible in these stories of the past. And then the TRC came into life as a response to mass atrocities. For the first time in the history of these traumatic experiences, of political traumas, we witness something that we have never seen. Even us on the TRC, although it was framed as reconciliation, we never imagined there would actually be stories of forgiveness emerging out of that process, and then we witness that this too is possible."

Others who took part in the two-hour-long seminar, were Dr Juliet Rogers, a Scholar on Remorse from the University of Melbourne in Australia and Dr Deon Snyman, Chairperson of the Worcester Hope and Reconciliation Process. They spoke about the dynamics behind the processes of engagement between victims/ survivors and perpetrators.

The Dialogue between Science and Society series was co-hosted by the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept