Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
08 May 2024
Photo SUPPLIED
The Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Prof Paul Oberholster, has the pleasure of inviting you to the inaugural lecture of Prof Dirk Opperman.
Date: 21 May 2024
Time: 17:30
Venue: Equitas
Click here to RSVP before Wednesday, 15 May 2024. Alternatively, contact Christelle van Rooyen on +27 51 401 9190.
About Prof Dirk Opperman
Prof Dirk Opperman obtained his PhD in Biochemistry at the University of the Free State in 2008. This was followed by postdoctoral research on directed evolution with Prof Manfred T Reetz at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research (Germany). In 2010, he was appointed in the Department of Microbiology and Biochemistry. He subsequently established structural biology at the UFS, and his current research focus lies at the interface of evolutionary and structure-function relationships of biocatalysts, and their application in green chemistry. He is an NRF B-rated researcher with co-authored papers in Science, Nature Communications, and Angewandte Chemie.
His research has been funded by both local and international organisations, ranging from industries such as SASOL to the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF, UK). He has a long-standing collaboration with researchers at the Delft University of Technology (TUDelft, the Netherlands) and is currently part of a European Research Area Network Cofund (ERA-NET Cofund) partnership on Food Systems and Climate (FOSC) that develops biocatalysts for upcycling waste.
Department of Architecture creates environment for winners
2017-08-29

The three beneficiaries of the Carl and Emily Fuchs
Foundation’s Prestige Prize in Architecture were from
the left: Madeli Beyers (UFS), Diana Kuhn (UCT),
and Benjamin Kollenberg (Wits).
Each received a bursary of R50 000.
Photo: Supplied
A feather in the cap for the Department of Architecture at the University of the Free State was when Madeli Beyers (BArchHons), was announced as one of three recipients of the 10th Annual Carl and Emily Fuchs Foundation Prestige Prize in Architecture.
According to Jako Olivier, Programme Director of the Department of Architecture, the top graduate students of eight national Architectural Learning Sites are adjudicated on their undergraduate portfolios, their full academic record and a 24-hour En Loge project.
This year, the En Loge project was conceptualised by the department, and investigated the forgotten voices in science, and the magical realism stories of the Free State landscape and the cosmos. The project was presented at the Boyden Observatory and science education centre.
The adjudicating panel was assembled from a list of 23 practitioners and academics proposed by the SA Institute of Architects.