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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.
UFS Department of Geology acquires state-of-the-art microscope
2007-03-29
The Department of Geology at the University of the Free State (UFS) acquired a new research level petrographic microscope to further research in the fields of mineralogy, petrology, exploration- and economic geology. The Olympus BX 51 polarizing microscope is fitted with the Altra20 soft imaging system that allows researchers not only to take top quality photographs of thin polished sections and polished ore sections, but to build digital databases and do intricate measurements on small mineral grains. This microscope is also used by post-graduate students in their research. Sitting at the microscope are: Ms Annegret Lombard (Lecturer in mineralogy at the Department of Geology) and Ms Natercia Glover from Wirsam Scientific, the South African dealers for Olympus Microscopes.
