UJADVANCEFUNDING AND DEVELOPMENT UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG | NEWS MAGAZINE | ISSUE 2 | VOL 8 MOVING THE WORLD FORWARD THROUGH Research, Innovation & Postgraduate Studies 4 Editor’s Note Internationalisation 5 Message from the VC 24 – 29 Meet the team UJ News Study Abroad Programme 6 UJ welcomes new Chancellor World Flavours Prof Njabulo Ndebele East Africa Executive Leadership Visits Postgraduate Centre 7 – 8 About the PGC Faculties and the PG students 30 - 36 Cumulus Green award for Funding and Support at the PGC paper on sustainable design 9 – 11 Strengthening Faculty News South African academics 37 – 41 UJ Solar Challenge vehicles 12 UJ student awarded Mandela celebrate success Rhodes Scholarship for ‘Class of 2013’ Funding and Development Research News 13 Polishing diamonds: the UJ 42 – 45 Research Chairs awarded to UJ in 2012 and De Beers story contents 14 The need for successful business Top Science researchers partnerships Record number of Doctoral graduates in one faculty Alumni 15 - 17 UJ Alumni Idols 2012 Sport News and Achievements 2 What can the Alumni Office 46 – 49 UJ Sport on a do for you? winning streak Alumni and CE Awards Visual Feature Alumni Feature 50 - 51 Competing 18 - 19 UJ Alumna vies for Miss Earth for the spotlight title in the Philippines Opinion UJ ADVANCE NOV 2012 UJ ADVANCE Community Engagement 52 - 53 Building 20 – 23 CE Student Volunteer Partnerships in Programme Building Project an unequal world CE Student Showcase Competition Hospital Project Nelson Mandela Day Women’s Day Fostering Partnerships at UJ 3 RESEARCH, INNOVATION AND POSTGRADUATE STUDIES AND POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH, INNOVATION A WORD FROM THE EDITOR Working hard to make a difference in the world The University’s Preamble to the UJ Strategic Thrusts: 2011 – 2020 is/states that UJ strives to provide education that is accessible and affordable, challenging, imaginative and innovative, and a just, responsible and sustainable society. 4 An educational institution is not just about the teaching and learning, but also the contribution it makes to society and the distance it would go to ensure that education is accessible to all, but also inexpensive. The second Strategic Thrust which was set out to be achieved by 2020 states that UJ work towards “a reputation as a comprehensive institution with a unique identity in the higher education sector because of the stature and quality of its scientific and technology-rich programmes and its scientific and technology-driven research, innovation and technology transfer”. UJ ADVANCE NOV 2012 UJ ADVANCE Editorial Team Editor: Tumelo Tladi In this edition we commemorate researchers and scholars at UJ who Contributors: Herman Esterhuizen have made an impact with the work they’ve done. We encourage those Cheryl Ramurath on the outside looking in to be involved in shaping the futures of young Philisiwe Luhabe minds and making a difference in society and in South Africa. There is so Faculty Marketing Executives much that is yet to be discovered and shared with the rest of the world. Photography: Jan Potgieter Highly qualified and innovative professors and scholars are crucial Collen Maepa to building a world-renowned reputation. These are the people our Eon Botha students will look up to and aspire to emulate when they choose the Ziphozonke Lushaba route to contribute to education, research, science and technology in our Supplied country, and be forward-thinking and cutting edge young scholars. Proof Readers: Esmé Grobler, Partnerships are vital to enabling collaboration, commercialisation and Charmaine du Plessis innovation at the University. These are the people who provide much Layout and Design: Karien Brink, needed support, in the form of funding, sponsorships or otherwise, for UJ Graphics Studio ground-breaking initiatives and projects to come to fruition with awe- Printers: Ultra Litho Printers inspiring results. EDITORIAL OFFICE There is so much more that many at UJ are doing behind the scenes; Strategic Communication in the laboratory, in the lecture halls and internationally. They all form a Institutional Advancement crucial part of this institution. Doornfontein Campus University of Johannesburg I leave you with these last words of inspiration. If nothing else, let them Tel: 011 559 6619 spark a desire to be part of the efforts that staff, students and scholars Email: [email protected] from all walks of life are contributing to making UJ one of the best. Submissions for UJ Advance are welcome. “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new Contact [email protected] or 011 559 6619 to angle, require creative imagination and marks real advance in science.” – request information on issue themes, deadlines and Albert Einstein article guidelines. Photographs must be supplied in Be bold enough to be great. Be bold enough to be brilliant. 300dpi jpeg or larger. Tumi A MESSAGE FROM THE VC, PROF IHRON RENSBURG UJ strives to celebrate excellence and encourage innovation These are inspiring times when research and innovation at UJ have become so crucial a contribution to the quality of education at the institution, and furthering the goal of building a world- renowned University recognised for its impact on society through our remarkable research and innovation, and continued support for research developments. 5 When researchers and fellows show promise Our research output has grown; it has more We at UJ are known for our contribution to and deliver ground-breaking results, it is than doubled. In fact, it has seen an increase the Geosciences. We have an amazing global only fitting that the University shows its of more than 100% over the period of five footprint in this regard. We do, however, also appreciation for their dedication and hard years. Research is a core mission of the seek to strengthen our footprint in these three work by celebrating their achievements with University, and at UJ we have proven that we areas of Telecommunications, Chemistry and them. Likewise, when we make it known do indeed take research seriously. We have Physics in addition to the NRF research chairs. that excellence is rewarded with further invested consistently over the last five years So, in the next decade, we should aim to work opportunities and resources, then we become working towards our objective of doubling towards building the institution’s reputation an institution that does everything in its our own research output and impact in the so that we make a global contribution in power to encourage innovation. South African and in international context. three or four of these areas of research and At UJ we pride ourselves in giving our UJ currently holds seven National Research innovation. It should become much more dedicated and committed postgraduates Fund chairs in the fields of Geometallurgy, evident, much more definitive that UJ has and fellows every opportunity to achieve to Social Change, Indigenous Plant Use, African great and admirable global footprint not just the best of their ability. We pride ourselves in Diplomacy and Foreign Policy, International in the Geosciences, but in other areas as well. giving researchers all the resources they need Law, Education and Care in Childhood as UJ will continue to invest in pioneering to make an impact in our community. well as Nanotechnology for Water. These individuals and their goals and dreams to It is quite commonly known and research areas have seen some intellectual make a positive and lasting contribution to and driven researchers do remarkable work our country and to the world; share what acknowledged, globally, that the level of STUDIES AND POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH, INNOVATION excellence of the teaching and learning in their respective fields, some to even knowledge they possess and discoveries they offered at an institution drives the institution’s receive A ratings from the NRF. It is because make. We will continue to appoint and retain reputation. Equally so, an institution’s of individuals such as these researchers and leading academics, make financial resources contribution and its profile of research professors that we have decided to contribute available to them and create an enabling and innovation also contribute to its even more towards research at UJ. environment for them to succeed. reputation and its standing in academia. It is It is for this reason that in addition to these And so, as we celebrate these noteworthy commendable when UJ researchers are able seven distinguished NRF chairs, UJ has also individuals who continue to put UJ on to compete on a global platform and show decided to establish three additional chairs the global map, we also encourage more the world of academia that we do indeed funded from its own resources. The new chairs innovation, more research exceeding even possess staff and students of a high calibre; will be established in Telecommunications, in our own expectations. certainly good enough to be the best of the Chemistry and in Physics. Anything you want to achieve, you can. Be best worldwide. These three areas present themselves for basic anything you want to be. Be pioneering. In my inaugural address as Vice-Chancellor and traditional research, but they also provide Be cutting edge. Be absolutely and in September 2006, I challenged staff the possibility of linking basic and traditional uncompromisingly remarkable. and students of the University to draw on research to innovation, to technology transfer our diverse and remarkable intellectual and to commercialisation. This will indeed achievements