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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.
Vice-Chancellor to receive prestigious lifetime achievement award in the United States
2013-05-23
23 May 2013
- Acceptance Speech
The University of the Free State (UFS) is proud to announce that yet another major international award will be bestowed on the Vice-Chancellor and Rector, Prof Jonathan Jansen.
On 3 June 2013 the Education Africa Lifetime Achievement Award for Africa will be added to the multiple international and local achievements and awards Prof Jansen has received over the past months.
He will receive the award at a gala dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City, United States. The glamorous event is hosted in collaboration between Education Africa and Brand South Africa. Prof Jansen will join an illustrious list of recipients, including Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Richard Branson and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
“I am deeply humbled by this award which I dedicate to the great teachers of our country, who under difficult conditions make our schools work for children of the poor; they are the real heroes of education," says Prof Jansen.
The Education Africa Lifetime Achievement Award for Africa is a highly regarded recognition on the world stage, awarded to individuals who focus the attention of the global community on the obstacles some of the poorest African nations face.
“He is a pioneering South African educator who is successfully transforming what was once a bastion of apartheid-era segregation and ideology into one of his country’s most inclusive and dynamic institutions of higher learning,” the organisers said in a statement.
As an extra honour to the UFS, one of its Council Members will also receive an award together with Prof Jansen at the ceremony in New York City next month. Ndaba Ntsele, also the Executive Chairman of Pamodzi Gold Limited and President of the South African Black Business Council, will receive the Education Africa Allegiance Award. This award is given to persons for their ‘steadfast support of the organisation [Education Africa] over many years.”
Prof Jansen’s other recent international awards and honours include the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance from the University of California in the US and membership of the Laureate Chapter of the Kappa Delta Pi International Honour Society in Education.
For more information on these as well as the other awards Prof Jansen has recently received, click here.