Claude Leon awards for young researchers

Outstanding researchers: (Back, from left) Dr Olabisi Falowo and Dr Hans Beushausen, and (front, from left) Dr Chris Clarkson and Dr Rob Ingle are the four winners of the Claude Leon Foundation Merit Awards for Young Lecturers.

Four up-and-coming lecturers received welcome boosts to their research kitties when they were presented with UCT's Claude Leon Foundation Merit Awards for Young Lecturers.

At an small ceremony on 21 September, deputy vice-chancellor Professor Danie Visser met with the four recipients - Dr Hans Beushausen of the Department of Civil Engineering, Dr Chris Clarkson of the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, Dr Olabisi Falowo of the Department of Electrical Engineering, and Dr Rob Ingle of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Each received R50 000.

Longstanding supporters of UCT, the Claude Leon Foundation made a generous award of R200 000 to UCT earlier this year, leaving it to UCT's discretion to apportion the money, but stipulating that it should only be used to assist the work of young academics. A committee opted to split the money into four sizeable awards rather than into many (but small) portions, explains Visser.

When asked what they'll be spending the money on, all four listed identical items: conference or other research-related travelling, the running costs of projects, plus precious support for their graduate students.

"The main problem we have is that molecular biology projects are very expensive to run," said Ingle. "And we have three students who need to finish next year, so this will definitely go a long way towards that."