A top-level delegation from Sasol recently met with the management of the University of the Free State (UFS) and that of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences to further invest millions in the Department of Chemistry. Sasol invested R9 million over the past three years in this department. The company has been very impressed with the department's 100% increase in significant published research outputs on basic petrochemical reactions from 2005 to 2006. At the meeting were, from the left, front: Prof. Frederick Fourie (Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS), Prof. Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS), and Dr Chris Reinecke (Managing Director of Sasol Technology R&D); back: Prof. Ben Bezuidenhout (Affiliated Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the UFS), Prof. André Roodt (Chairperson of the Department of Chemistry at the UFS) and Dr Desmond Young (Manager of Chemical Technologies at Sasol Technology R&D).
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe