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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.
Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson mourned
2012-12-03
03 December 2012
Former Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson has died in Johannesburg on Saturday after reportedly suffering from pneumonia.
Chaskalson was the president of the Constitutional Court from 1994 to 2001 and then became Chief Justice until he retired in 2005. He was hailed as one of the architects of South Africa’s democracy.
In a short statement Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS, said: “Chief Justice Chaskalson stands as a giant on the South African landscape, a man whose sense of justice and his deep humanity put him on the right side of history as part of the legal team defending Nelson Mandela. It was completely appropriate that he was chosen to serve as the first Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, where he again served as a moral beacon for all citizens in our emerging democracy.”
IOL reports President Jacob Zuma has declared Chaskalson’s funeral a special official funeral. National flags, including that at the UFS, will fly at half-mast from Monday until Friday.