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Faculty of Health Sciences Dean’s medal winner already has her eyes on next degree

14 April 2025 | Story André Damons | Photo André Damons

Health Sciences Medal winners — Three of the Dean’s medal winners: Celine Taute, Angelique Johnson and Dr Monique Davidson after the graduation ceremony.

It was a big week for the newest University of the Free State (UFS) graduate, Angelique Johnson, who not only graduated with a Bachelor of Medical Science Honours in Pharmacology degree with distinction, but she was also awarded the Dean’s medal in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the university’s April graduation ceremonies.

Only a day before crossing the graduation stage on Friday 11 April, Angelique was also awarded the UFS Faculty of Health Sciences floating trophy for achieving the best results in respect of a bachelor honours degree in the faculty.

“It’s honestly an honour. Receiving the Dean’s Medal feels surreal — it’s a reminder that the effort I put in didn’t go unnoticed. It’s also motivating and makes me feel proud to represent my faculty in such a positive way.

“Graduating with distinction feels incredibly rewarding — it’s a validation of all the late nights, hard work, and perseverance. Achieving this required discipline, time management, and a genuine passion for the material. I also leaned on a strong support system and made sure to stay consistent throughout the academic year,” says Angelique.

Dean’s Medal winners

The Dean’s medal was also awarded to Celine Taute, Alexander van Wyk and Dr Monique Davidson who all graduated last year. Taute, who graduated with a Bachelor of Medical Science with specialisation in Radiation Sciences degree (obtained with distinction), was awarded the Dean’s medal for achieving the best results as a third-year student. Van Wyk graduated with Bachelor of Biokinetics degree with distinction and received the Dean’s medal for achieving the best results as a fourth-year student while Dr Davidson received was awarded for obtaining the best results as a fifth-year student.

Dr Davidson graduated with the degree Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery with distinction. Just like Johnson, Dr Davidson, Taute and Van Wyk was also awarded the faculty’s floating trophy for achieving the best results in their respective study years at Thursday’s (10 April 2025) prize-giving ceremony.

Driven by passion

According to Angelique, she will now pursue an MBChB degree as her passion for medicine drives her to go beyond simply making small changes — she wants to create a meaningful, lasting impact. “To borrow and adapt the words of Prof Gert van Zyl, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, I don’t just aim to create ripples or waves in the field of healthcare — I aspire to create a tsunami of positive change in people’s lives and in the medical profession.”

In 2023 she completed a BSc in Human Physiology (cum laude) from the University of Pretoria (UP). She decided to enrol for an Honours in Pharmacology degree after developing a strong interest in how the body responds to different substances, especially at the cellular and molecular levels.

“Pharmacology felt like a natural extension of that curiosity — it dives deeper into the mechanisms of drug action and how they can be used to treat disease. I wanted to better understand how physiological processes can be manipulated for therapeutic benefit, and pharmacology offered the perfect balance between science and real-world medical application,” she concludes.

Provide comfort

According to Celine, both the Dean’s medal as well as the awards came as a big surprise because she did not set out to achieve them. “I feel immensely blessed and thankful. Things that are worth it, require some sacrifices.”

“I am so grateful. I set out to do my best and trusted that God would sort out the details. Discipline and hard work were key in my success. A person is not an island, so having family that always believed in me even when I didn't, helped me get through those tough exams,” says Celine.

Celine, who is currently busy with an honour’s degree whereafter she will embark on a two-year internship, says she chose to specialise in radiation as she wanted to provide comfort and education to the mostly cancer patients and their families who radiation treatment can help.

News Archive

UFS boasts with most advanced chemical research apparatus in Africa

2005-11-23

Celebrating the inauguration of the NMR were from the left Prof Frederick Fourie (Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS), Dr Detlef Müller (Development Scientist and Manager: Africa and Asia of Bruker in Germany, the supplier of the NMR), Prof Jannie Swarts (head of the head of the Division Physical Chemistry at the UFS) and Prof Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS). Photo: Lacea Loader

UFS boasts with most advanced chemical research apparatus in Africa

The University of the Free State’s (UFS) Department of Chemistry now boasts with some of the most advanced chemical research apparatus in Africa after the latest addition, a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer, was inaugurated today by the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Frederick Fourie. The NMR is used to analyse molecular structures.

Last month the Department of Chemistry celebrated the installation of the most advanced single crystal X-ray diffractometer in Africa. The diffractometer provides an indispensable technique to investigate among others the solid state of compounds for medicinal application.

“Three years ago the UFS executive management realised that, if we want to build a university of excellence, we should invest in research. We started to think strategically about chemistry and decided to bring the apparatus at the Department of Chemistry on a more competitive standard. Strategic partnerships were therefore secured with companies like Sasol,” said Prof Fourie during the inauguration ceremony.

“The installation of the NMR symbolises the ability of the UFS to turn academic areas around. I hope that this is the beginning of a decade of excellence for chemistry at the UFS,” said Prof Fourie.

”The catalogue value of the Bruker 600 MHz NMR is approximately R11 million. With such an advanced apparatus we are now able to train much more post-graduate students,“ said Prof Jannie Swarts, head of the Division Physical Chemistry at the UFS.

”The NMR is the flagship apparatus of the UFS Department of Chemistry that enables chemists to look at compounds more easily at a molecular level. Research in chemistry is critically dependent on NMR, which is a technique that can determine the composition of reactants and products in complicated chemical reactions, with direct application is most focus areas in chemistry,“ said Prof Swarts.

”Parts of the spectrometer consists of non-commercial items that were specifically designed for the UFS Department of Chemistry to allow the study of unique interactions in e.g. rhodium and platinum compounds,” said Prof Swarts.

According to Prof Swarts the NMR enables chemists to conduct investigations on the following:

To evaluate for example the complex behaviour of DNA in proteins as well as the analysis of illegal drugs sometimes used by athletes.
It provides an indispensable technique to investigate compounds for medicinal application for example in breast, prostate and related bone cancer identification and therapy, which are currently synthesised in the Department of Chemistry.
It can also be applied to the area of homogeneous catalysis where new and improved compounds for industrial application are synthesized and characterised, whereby Sasol and even the international petrochemical industry could benefit. This analytical capacity is highly rated, especially in the current climate of increased oil prices.
The NMR can detect and identify small concentrations of impurities in feed streams in the petrochemical industry, e.g. at Sasol and also the international petrochemical industry. These minute amounts of impurities can result in metal catalyst deactivation or decomposition and can cause million of rands worth in product losses.
It is indispensable for studying the complexity of samples that is non-crystalline. These materials represent the vast majority of chemical compounds such as solvents, gasoline, cooking oil, cleaning agents and colorants as examples.

According to Prof Swarts the general medical technique of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) in use at larger hospitals, is based on NMR technology.

”The NMR apparatus enabled the Department of Chemistry to characterise complex molecules that were synthesised for the multi-national company, FARMOFS-PAREXEL, and to negotiate research agreements with overseas universities,” said Prof Swarts.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
22 November 2005

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