Four new Fellows for UCT

The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) annual College of Fellows event on Wednesday 10 October saw citations for four new Fellows and six Young Researcher awards.

The event, at the Smuts Dining Hall, was hosted by Vice-Chancellor Mamogkethi Phakeng, who also delivered the welcome address and introduced her chosen word: “woke”.

The word, according to Phakeng, “is increasingly used as a byword for social awareness”.

“This is one of the things that makes research at UCT so effective – social awareness,” she said.

The university’s elders

“In my culture we have the concept of elders. These are people who have walked the road ahead of us. We respect them because they do not impose their ideas on us, but they take time to listen and engage in our ideals and dreams as young people who are not as experienced as they are … In chaos, they are the voice of reason, and in wars and battles, they bring peace.

“It is for this reason that elders have a special place in our culture. And when they command us, we listen without question. I want to challenge us tonight to make the year 2019 the first one in which we can take our rightful place as elders of the university, because I believe the College of Fellows should be the elders of the university. This university needs you,” Phakeng urged.

“The College of Fellows should be the elders of the university. This university needs you.”

Co-hosting the event was Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalisation Professor Michael Kyobe, along with the programme director, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning Associate Professor Lis Lange.

Four new Fellows

This year, four permanent UCT academics were awarded a Fellowship. The new Fellows were congratulated by Kyobe and Phakeng, who was awarded her Fellowship in 2017. The new Fellows for 2018 are:

• Professor Aubrey Mainza from the Department of Chemical Engineering, who is also the deputy director and head of Comminution and Classification Research in the Centre for Minerals Research,
• Professor Edgar Pieterse, director of the African Centre for Cities, Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation (DST/NRF) South African Research Chair in Urban Policy, and professor in the School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics.
• Professor Tania Douglas, who holds the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Chair in Biomedical Engineering & Innovation.
• Professor Michael Meadows, head of the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, who is also chair of the Science Faculty Ethics Committee and of the University Sports Council.

Recognition for research

UCT’s College of Fellows was established by the UCT Council to recognise distinguished academic work by permanent academic staff.

The evening also celebrated six of UCT’s young researchers who have made significant contributions to research in their fields. College of Fellows Young Researcher Awards went to:

• Dr Asanda Benya (Department of Sociology)
• Dr Sarah Fawcett (Department of Oceanography)
• Dr Nomusa Makhubu (Michaelis School of Fine Art)
• Dr Brendan Maughan-Brown (School of Economics)
• Associate Professor Jill Olivier (Division of Health Policy and Systems)
• Associate Professor Alistair Price (Department of Private Law)