Change the world

23/04/2018

Congratulations to the following staff, students and Emeritus Professors who have excelled in their fields in the last two weeks.

 

Amica de Jager (first year BSc Computer Science) was selected to the SA Surf Lifesaving team to travel to Japan later this year.

The National Champs were held in PE over the recess and she had this to say: "It was the SA lifesaving nationals. I got 21 medals in total: 6 gold, 6 silver and 9 bronze.  I got gold for U19 surf swim, board rescue, 200 obstacles, 100 tow and tube, 50 manikin rescue and 200 super lifesaver.  And I also won the U19 Victrix Ladorum in the pool and came 3rd overall for senior women in surf.”

 

 

Avukile Jeke (a student with blindness doing Honours in isiXhosa) and won a Gold Medal at the Judo National Championships  held from 28 March until 2 April in the Free State.

He competed with five participants. Three of them were fighting for the international level while the other two were fighting for the national level. Avukile now looks forward to competing at an international level.

 

 

Dr Gaathier Mahed (lecturer in the Department of Geosciences) who has been nominated for two National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) awards.

The NSTF Awards were established in 1998 as a collaborative effort to recognise outstanding contributions to science, engineering and technology (SET) and innovation by SET-related professionals and organisations in South Africa. This includes experienced scientists, engineers, innovators, science communicators, engineering capacity builders, and organisational managers/leaders, as well as data and research managers.

Dr Mahed has also been nominated for the Emerging Researcher Award and the Water Research Commission Award. Dr Mahed, only recently joined the Science faculty (on 9 April). We wish him a successful and prosperous journey here.

Nyameko Maxama, who is currently PGD Internal Auditing student and the Sensei/instructor of the Madibaz karate club has been selected to participate in the 35th All Japan weight category championships which will be held on the 21st and 22nd of April in Tokyo, Japan.

 

 

 

Brightness Mangolothi will receive a certificate of recognition at the International Association for Business Communicators (IABC) Excellence Gala at the Palais des congrès de Montréal on 5 June, taking place as part of IABC’s 2018 World Conference.

"Your service is to be applauded. The sharing of your time, and more importantly, your knowledge helps to advance our profession through the application of IABC’s Global Standard of Excellence" read her letter from the International Association of Business Communicators. The IABC is a global network of communication professionals committed to improving organizational effectiveness through strategic communication.

“This is really an honour to receive international recognition. For the past three years I have been part of the global panel of evaluators for the IABC. This has led to international networks that are opening doors for great opportunities for me, my students, the University and our country. Importantly, it provides me with an opportunity to benchmark my knowledge and teaching with international standards.  My students are in good hands!” said Brightness.
 

Our Madibaz Rowing team did very well at the recent USSA Rowing Sprints regatta held at Misverstand Dam from 5 – 7 April. Dane Walker and Jaryd van der Westhuysen won the Mens B doubles sculls and Alex Ennis won the Womens Novice Single sculls. Madibaz Rowing Coach, Mteteleli Biko, is pictured with the winners.

 

 

 

Nelson Mandela University emeritus professors Ernst Kotze and Albert Troskie will be receiving honorary awards from the Council of the South African Academy for Science and Art for 2018. The prizes will be handed over in Pretoria (18 July) and Stellenbosch (21 September) according to the choice of the winners.

Prof Ernst Kotze will be honoured with a special award for his outstanding contribution to and service to Afrikaans as a science and standard language. Nobody else has performed to the extent with such excellence in linguistics and Afrikaans linguistics over the past 50 years.

His area of expertise includes the orthography of Afrikaans, lexicography, sociolinguistics, language planning and policy, historical linguistics, forensic linguistics, translation studies, Afrikaans grammar, Afrikaans language teaching and Afrikaans language practice. As the most versatile linguist in the country, his magnum opus has been the Afrikaans-Japanese dictionary published in 2016.

Prof Kotzé has served on the SA Academy’s Language Commission for twenty years - ten years as chairperson. He is the main Afrikaans linguist on the project The Bible: A Direct Translation. He has also served as the Afrikaans language advisor for Radiosondergrense for more than ten years.

Prof Troskie will receive a special Honorary Award as a versatile artist who is active as an academic; researcher; performing artist; student teacher; a church music composer; judge at competitions at national level and compiler and editor of authoritative reference works; initiator of more than one association; leader at various organisational levels and involved in a number of community projects; adviser for various pipe organs in South Africa and practicing church organist and church choir conductor.

Prof Troskie continues to handle many of these activities in a passionate way, and the sustainability and drive that he pursues with projects is remarkable.