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08 May 2024 Photo SUPPLIED
Dirk Opperman

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 to view document 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.

News Archive

Arts and Social Justice festival brings arts and academia together
2013-08-14

14 August 2013

Programme (pdf)

The Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice is hosting the 2nd Annual Arts and Social Justice Week from 19–31 August 2013. Due to its popularity last year, the run of the festival has been extended to two weeks.

The festival celebrates freedom of expression through drama, dance, music, poetry, film, and arts exhibitions. This year the aim is to create an environment where creativity and academia join hands.

Highlights of the programme include an open-air film screening of the documentary 'Dear Mandela' on Friday 30 August. This film follows the journey of three young people from their shacks to the highest court in the land as they invoke Nelson Mandela's example and become leaders in a growing social movement. By turns inspiring, devastating and funny, the film offers a new perspective on the role that young people can play in political change and is a fascinating portrait of South Africa coming of age.

On Wednesday 21 August Prof Ntongela Desmond Masilela speaks on 'The contribution of Woman to Intellectual Thought about Modernity within the Context of the New African Movement'.

The documentary 'Injury Time' explores the question of who really benefited from the post-1994 democratic dispensation in the sporting arena. This screening takes place on Monday 26 August. Producer, Mark Fredericks tells a damning tale of betrayal and deceit, as an entire past of non-racial sport was written out of history.

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