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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.
UFS partner in first HDCA conference in Africa
2017-09-05
The HDCA conference will take place at the University of
Cape Town from 6 to 8 September 2017.
Photo: Supplied
Academics from the University of the Free State are conference partners in the 2017 Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA) conference taking place from 6 to 8 September 2017 at the University of Cape Town. It is also the first time the conference is held on the African continent.
Prof Melanie Walker from the Centre for Research on Higher Education and Development at the UFS serves on the local organising committee, as well as on the programme committee for the conference.
Conference theme and context
The theme for this year’s conference is Challenging inequalities: Human development and social change. The annual conference is a collaborative effort between the Universities of the Free State and Western Cape as well as the Human Science Research Council. It is supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF).
The conference is held at a key and historic moment for the continent and for South Africa – economically, socially and politically – offering the possibility to bring the approach to the attention of wider audiences of researchers, young scholars, practitioners, and policy- makers/brokers.
Click here for the conference programme