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Wits celebrates research excellence

- Wits University

It was an upbeat post-pandemic return to campus when Wits academics gathered to celebrate research excellence.

For the first time in almost two years, Wits researchers and scientists convened at the scenic Wits Club on Braamfontein Campus West on 22 February 2022.

The research celebration was hosted by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation, Professor Lynn Morris and Dr Robin Drennan, Director: Research and Innovation in the Wits Research Office.

The event was to acknowledge and celebrate Witsies’ research awards from the University and external research entities, and to reignite the enthusiasm and cross-disciplinary enthusiasm that in-person engagement stimulates.

The event commemorated research successes spanning the pandemic period from 2020 to early 2022.

In the opening address, Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Zeblon Vilakazi said that as Wits celebrates its centenary in 2022, “the best is yet to come!” He paid sombre tribute to “some of the best of the best”, whom Wits had lost during the pandemic. He encouraged Wits researchers to “not be afraid to speak truth to power – never waiver and never compromise.”

Professor Andrew Forbes in the School of Physics, who was the recipient of the 2022 Wits Vice-Chancellor’s Research Award for Sustained Research, delivered the keynote address. He commented on the fact that academics’ CVs reflect their successes, “But where are our failures?”

Forbes suggested that reflecting on his “CV of failures” was when real learning and growth occurred – this from the 2022 Sang Soo Lee Award winner and recipient of the Gold Medal from the South African Institute of Physics in 2020.

Innovating for good

Professors Yahya Choonara, Pradeep Kumar and the late Viness Pillay of the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmacology received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Innovation.

WADDP scientists developed and commercialised the WaferMat, an ultrafast wafer drug dosage form which allows for the delivery of active pharmaceutical ingredients without the need for water, chewing or swallowing.

This is beneficial in situations where drugs are unpalatable or difficult to swallow – for example, in children or the elderly – which leads to poor compliance with drug-taking and thus aggravates healthcare challenges. 

Social impact on policy and practice

Dr Brahm Fleisch in the Wits School of Education won the Social Impact award. He is a professor in the Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the Wits School of Education.

Fleisch conducts experimental research on improving early grade learning outcomes in South Africa. Over the past decade, the research programme led by researchers at Wits University and the Department of Basic Education has produced compelling evidence on how to improve early grade learning outcomes at scale in South Africa. 

The evidence emerging from this research programme has cited by the President and incorporated into national policy.  At its core, this research is a change model that combines language and mathematics lessons plans, the provision of quality reading and other learner materials for all learners, and ongoing professional development for teachers that includes onsite instructional coaching. 

Advancing excellence in the academy

Wits established the Distinguished Professors Programme in 2013 to attract high-calibre academics to faculty. The University has appointed a total of 27 Distinguished Professors to date, including over the 2020-2022 period:

In the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Professors Dorrit ‘Dori’ Posel and Gary van Vuuren in Economics and Finance.

In the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, Professors David Dorrell and David Limebeer in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering.

In the Faculty of Health Sciences:

In the Faculty of Humanities:

In the Faculty of Science:

Encouraging excellent emerging researchers

In 1956, Professor J.P. E ‘Friedel’ Sellschop (1930-2002), a world leader in the field of nuclear physics, was the founding director of the Nuclear Physics Research Unit at Wits. The unit became the Schonland Research Institute for Nuclear Sciences and was part of the Physics Department until 1963 and then became a separate research entity funded by the University.

In 1998, the institute was restructured and became an umbrella of autonomous research entities. Wits donated the Institute to the National Research Foundation in 2004 and it is now operated by the iThemba LABS.

Sellschop’s positions at Wits included Dean of the Faculty of Science and later Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research from 1984 to 1996, after which he retired.

Now in the 21st century, Wits University bestows the Friedel Sellschop Awards annually to recognise and encourage young researchers. The awards are underwritten by a research grant made available by the University Research and Innovation Committee to qualifying researchers.

These awards are open to members of staff in all faculties who either hold a permanent University-funded position or a joint appointment with the National Health Laboratory Service or Gauteng Province. The researchers should not be older than 40 years at the time of first application.

Sellschop awardees in 2022 include:

They join the following researchers, who were recipients in 2021:

 The Sellschop awardees in 2020 were:

 A lifetime of excellence

Morris acknowledged the award made by the Academy of Science for South Africa (ASSAf) of its Gold Medal jointly to