Briefs

Dr Juan Klopper, a senior lecturer in surgery at UCT, won the 2014 Award for OpenCourseWare Excellence in the educator category for his innovative work in sharing teaching materials. With this award, the OpenCourseWare Consortium (OWC) recognises "an educator who actively develops and/or uses open educational resources in creative and significant ways over a sustained period of time".

Klopper describes his online lectures as a "labour of love", which slots in with his mantra "never stop learning and never stop teaching". His YouTube channel view count is nearing 200 000 and he has almost 1 000 videos online.

The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a community of more than 300 universities and associated organisations from around the world, committed to advancing open education.

Three exceptional researchers -Drs John Ataguba, Andrew Hamilton and Deena Pillay -received Claude Leon Foundation Merit Awards for Young Scholars at a lunchtime event held in the Research Office recently.

Health economist Ataguba, P-rated physicist Hamilton and marine ecologist Pillay were recognised for meritorious scholarly work by young academics (under 41 years) in natural and medical sciences, and engineering. Each receives funding of up to R50 000, which must be spent within 12 months of receiving the award.

Five exceptional UCT graduates are among 11 South African recipients of Rhodes Scholarships to conduct postgraduate study at the University of Oxford.

They are Paul Amayo (Bachelor of Science and Engineering in Mechatronics, 2013); Matthew Davey (Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, 2012); Nicholas Dowdall (Bachelor of Social Sciences in Psychology, Economics and Spanish, 2013); Simon Mendelsohn (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, 2011); and Vuyane Mhlomi (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, 2011). They are part of a broader annual class of 83 scholars for 2014, selected from institutions around the globe.

Established in 1903 under the will of Cecil Rhodes, the scholarship is the oldest − and one of the most prestigious − international graduate scholarship programmes in the world.

A new Jammie Shuttle stop near Gardens Centre will help UCT students and staff to connect more easily with buses on MyCiTi routes. The Jammie Shuttle previously had only one MyCiTi transfer point at UCT's Hiddingh campus, but will now connect with MyCiTi on its way to and from Hiddingh.

This new development will reduce passengers' travel time and enable shuttle passengers to access MyCiTi routes 101 and 103, with the return journey also being possible.