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.
“Month of Compassion”
2011-05-24
 |
|
Hundred roses were planted in front of our Main Building
Photo: Duard Grobbelaar
|
The Health and Wellness Centre at our university recently planted roses on the Main Campus in memory of people who passed away in the past year due to some illnesses and other personal issues.
Each rose represented 2 550 South Africans who have passed away and 100 roses were planted in front of the Main Building on our Main Campus. There were 51 red roses which represented deaths due to HIV, 14 yellow roses for those who passed away due to ischemic heart disease, 13 white roses for deaths caused by stroke, 11 orange roses for deaths caused by turbeculosis and 11 pink roses for deaths caused by interpersonal violence.
The rose garden managed to draw a lot of attention and people, many of which were members of our own staff and several students, actually took time from their busy schedules to have a look at its spectacular beauty.