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Internationalisation of engaged scholarship: Prof Peacock’s impact

19 March 2024 | Story Valentino Ndaba | Photo SUPPLIED

Prof Robert Peacock, of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Criminology Department, champions global engagement in scholarship, offering hope to victims worldwide while linking academia, policy, and practice.

Crime and victimisation have far-reaching consequences that profoundly impact on societal, economic, and ecological development. At the forefront of addressing these global challenges in Criminology, Victimology, Transitional and Criminal Justice, stands Prof Robert Peacock, an esteemed figure in the field from the University of the Free State's Department of Criminology.

His expertise adds significant depth to understanding and tackling the complex interplay between interpersonal conflict and broader societal, economic and ecological injustices. As serving and now Immediate Past President of the World Society of Victimology, Prof Peacock’s impact reached the highest levels, holding consultative status at both the United Nations Economic and Social Council and the Council of Europe. Together with the Justice Section of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), interventions on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice reform were also made on occasion of the 35th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power.

Advancing global discourse

Reflecting on his tenure, Prof Peacock emphasises: “The plight of victims of crime and abuse of power underscores the imperative to scrutinise global and local power dynamics, linking local experiences to global patterns of victimisation and transformation.” This sentiment resonated profoundly during the World Victimology Symposium held in Donostia/San Sebastian in Spain, shedding light on the Anthropocene epoch’s complexities.

His commitment to international collaboration is unwavering, evident in his new role on the Scientific and Advisory committee of the upcoming 2025 World Criminology conference to be hosted by O.P. Jindal Global University in India.

Global reach

Beyond academia, Prof Peacock’s influence extends worldwide, with invitations as a guest lecturer, course director, and keynote speaker at prestigious institutions and symposia. His guest editor roles in special editions of journals like Mediarres and Ethnicity in Criminal Justice highlight his dedication to advancing critical regional and international discourse.

To proceed with an emancipatory agenda for victims of crime and abuse of power in Africa or that of a Southern Victimology, Prof Peacock advocates for a paradigm shift in victimology, transcending narrow Western perspectives, and to remain mindful of the global economy and geopolitics that create new variations of privilege and status and asymmetries that cut across nations and regions. Recent translations of his work into Spanish aim to enhance accessibility across Latin America.

Strategic collaborations

In recognition of his expertise, Prof Peacock received a Global Minds grant, facilitating collaboration with KU Leuven (Katolieke Universiteit Leuven) in Belgium, a leading institution in law and criminology. This partnership, focusing on human rights, transitional justice, restorative justice and victimology, paves the way for impactful research on conflict, peace, and development.

Prof Peacock’s longstanding collaboration with colleagues in Belgium and the Netherlands underscores his commitment to international scholarship. Together, they’ve contributed significantly to victimological approaches to international crimes, even securing an audience with Pope Francis.

Advancing practical application

In advancing praxis and the internationalisation of engaged scholarship, Prof Peacock presented twice during the month of January 2024 on the topic of Trauma informed practice for frontline workers at the Permanent Mission of Belgium to the European Union. This was done in close cooperation with the Leuven Institute of Criminology, KU Leuven, and the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brussels, together with an interdisciplinary project consortium, that included partners from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Prof Peacock shared as speaker sessions with a Trauma Expert of the Victims and Witnesses Section of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

As Prof Peacock continues to champion engaged scholarship on an international scale, his contributions seek to ameliorate the plight of victims of crime and abuse of power worldwide, bridging gaps between academia, policy, and practice.

News Archive

Researcher part of project aimed at producing third-generation biofuels from microalgae in Germany

2016-05-09

Some of the researchers and technicians among the tubes of the Novagreen bioreactor (Prof Grobbelaar on left)

A researcher from the University of the Free State (UFS), Prof Johan Grobbelaar, was invited to join a group of scientists recently at the Institute for Bio- and Geo-Sciences of the Research Centre Jülich, in Germany, where microalgae are used for lipid (oil) production, and then converted to kerosene for the aviation industry.

The project is probably the first of its kind to address bio-fuel production from microalgae on such a large scale.

“The potential of algae as a fuel source is undisputed, because it was these photoautotrophic micro-organisms that were fixing sunlight energy into lipids for millions of years, generating the petroleum reserves that modern human civilisation uses today. However, these reserves are finite, so the challenge is marrying biology with technology to produce economically-competitive fuels without harming the environment and compromising our food security. The fundamental ability that microalgae have to produce energy-rich biomass from CO2, nutrients, and sunlight through photosynthesis for biofuels, is commonly referred to as the Third-Generation Biofuels (3G),” said Prof Grobbelaar.

The key compounds used for bio-diesel and kerosene production are the lipids and, more particularly, the triacylglyserols commonly referred to as TAGs. These lipids, once extracted, need to be trans-esterified for biodiesel, while a further “cracking” step is required to produce kerosene. Microalgae can store energy as lipids and/or carbohydrates. However, for biofuels, microalgae with high TAG contents are required. A number of such algae have been isolated, and lipid contents of up to 60% have been achieved.

According to Prof Grobbelaar, the challenge is large-scale, high-volume production, since it is easy to manipulate growth conditions in the laboratory for experimental purposes.

The AUFWIND project (AUFWIND, a German term for up-current, or new impetus) in Germany consists of three different commercially-available photobioreactor types, which are being compared for lipid production.

Manipulated Chlorella with high lipid contents (yellow) in the Novagreen bioreactor

The photobioreactors each occupies 500 m2 of land surface area, are situated next to one another, and can be monitored continuously. The three systems are from Novagreen, IGV, and Phytolutions. The Novagreen photobioreactor is housed in a glass house, and consist of interconnected vertical plastic tubes roughly 150 mm in diameter. The Phytolutions system is outdoors, and consists of curtains of vertical plastic tubes with a diameter of about 90 mm. The most ambitious photobioreactor is from IGV, and consists of horizontally-layered nets housed in a plastic growth hall, where the algae are sprayed over the nets, and allowed to grow while dripping from one net to the next.

Prof Grobbelaar’s main task was to manipulate growth conditions in such a way that the microalgae converted their stored energy into lipids, and to establish protocols to run the various photobioreactors. This was accomplished in just over two months of intensive experimentation, and included modifications to the designs of the photobioreactors, the microalgal strain selection, and the replacement of the nutrient broth with a so-called balanced one.

Prof Grobbelaar has no illusions regarding the economic feasibility of the project. However, with continued research, optimisation, and utilisation of waste resources, it is highly likely that the first long-haul flights using microalgal-derived kerosene will be possible in the not-too-distant future.

Prof Grobbelaar from the Department of Plant Sciences, although partly retired, still serves on the editorial boards of several journals. He is also involved with the examining of PhDs, many of them from abroad. In addition, he assisted the Technology Innovation Agency of South Africa in the formulation of an algae-biotechnology and training centre. “The chances are good that such a centre will be established in Upington, in the Northern Cape,” Prof Grobbelaar said.

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