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08 May 2024
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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.
Invitation to International Cardiothoracic congress
2011-06-01
Our Faculty of Health Sciences is pleased to announce the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgeons Academy (EACTS) and Hannes Meyer Cardiothoracic Surgery Registrar Symposium, which will be taking place on our Bloemfontein Campus from 3 to 5 June 2011.
The congress first started in 2004 as the Hannes Meyer Registrar Congress, which was jointly hosted by the UFS and the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons of South Africa. This event was hosted on our Bloemfontein Campus annually, except in 2009, when the University of Cape Town was the host.
The focus of this year’s symposium is new techniques in perfusion and surgery, with specific emphasis on research methodology, inflammatory lung disease and cardiac surgery in children and adults, which can be performed without the aid of a heart-lung machine in developing countries.
Prof. Francis Smit, Head of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in the Faculty of Health Sciences, says EACTS identified the UFS as the Sub-Saharan training unit they will support in terms of training. The first of these symposiums was accordingly hosted in 2010.
This year’s symposium will be attended by approximately 70 delegates from cardiothoracic units from across South Africa and 10 doctors from 6 African countries, as well as 30 perfusion technologists.
“We are fulfilling a leadership role in Africa and South Africa with this course,” says Prof. Smit.
Several international visitors will be present, like Prof. Paul Sergeant and Prof. Marko Turina, two previous EACTS presidents and Prof. Charles Yankah, a Ghanaian Cardiothoracic Surgeon from the Charite Medical University in Berlin. The current president of the European Board of Cardiovascular Perfusion (EBCP), Mr Frank Merkle, will also be one of three international speakers delivering lectures on perfusion technology.
You are invited to attend the conference on the following dates:
Date: 3 - 5 June 2011
Time: 09:00
Venue: Faculty of Health Sciences in the Francois Retief Building on our Bloemfontein Campus