“While the academic project through our scholarly missions of Learning and Teaching, Research and Engagement are at the heart of what we do in our service to society, it cannot be achieved without the people who enable this to happen – our Professional, Administrative and Support Services (PASS) staff, Vice-Chancellor Prof Muthwa said at the event in the Tramways Building on 10 September.
Research, teaching, engagement, innovation, creative output and professional and support staff achievement awards were made at the function.
“It takes deliberate leadership and organisational support for employees to blossom in their work. I, therefore, salute the supervisors of all the nominees for their judicious people management focus, enabling their teams to excel,” Prof Muthwa said.
“As a comprehensive institution, we value and appreciate all aspects of the academy. The National Framework for Enhancing Academics as University Teachers acknowledges that “the work of an academic involves being a teacher and a researcher - these roles should not be in competition. Both are equally important and interdependent and need to be developed, valued, rewarded and incentivised. Teaching must be research-informed,” Prof Muthwa said.
“We continue to develop our early career researchers as holistic academics and to this end, we are excited by the strong collaboration between the Department of Research Development and the Centre for Teaching, Learning & Media.
“We are currently hosting 63 postdoctoral fellows, compared to 52 in 2017. They significantly contribute to the University in terms of publication outputs, postgraduate supervision and general research productivity.
“In 2018 our postdoctoral fellows published over 50 peer-reviewed papers, Prof Muthwa said.
In addition, two special awards were made, the first to Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Innovation and Internationalisation Prof Andrew Leitch who received a Lifetime Contribution Award for his dedication to the academy, research and the institution over many years. The second award was to Prof Denise Zinn, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching who was presented with a Career Achievement Award for her contribution to the field of Education, Teaching and Learning.
Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Awards winners:
Researcher of the Year: Prof Pierre Pistorius
Excellent Teacher of the Year: Lizel Bester
Emerging Excellent Researcher of the Year: Dr Adeniyi Ogunlaja
Emerging Excellent Teacher of the Year: Danai Tembo
Research Excellence Awards: Profs Benita Barton and André Keet
Faculty Excellent Researchers of the Year
Arts: Prof Janina Wozniak
Business and Economic Sciences: Dr Andrew Phiri
Education: Prof Logamurthie Athiemoolam
Engineering, IT and the Built Environment: Prof John Smallwood
Health Sciences: Prof Ilse Truter
Law: Prof Joanna Botha
Science: Prof Pierre Pistorius
Faculty Emerging Researchers of the Year
Arts: Dr Janelle Vermaak
Business and Economic Sciences: Dr Felix Amoah
Education: Dr Heloise Sathorar
Health Sciences: Dr Mark Kramer
Law: Stephen Newman
Science: Dr Adeniyi Ogunlaja
Faculty Excellent Teachers of the Year
Arts: Tarryn Rennie
Business and Economic Sciences: Lizel Bester
Education: Dr Marelize van Heerden
Engineering, IT and the Built Environment: Alan McGillivray and Yiota Moutzouris
Health Sciences: Dr Lia Kritiotis-Germanis
Law: Tina Hokwana
Science: Dr Suresh Juglal
Faculty Emerging Teachers of the Year
Business and Economic Sciences: Danai Tembo
Education: Reinhold Gallant
Health Sciences: Karin Gerber
Science: Anita Noah
Engagement Excellence Award (STEM): Agricultural Technology Transfer Programme – Dr Tim Pittaway
Engagement Excellence Team Award: Institute for Coastal and Marine Research (ICMR) and The School@Home Project Team –Veonna Goliath
Engagement Project Award: Architectural Engagements with Our Human Origins – John Andrews
Innovation Excellence Award: Prof Jean Greyling
Emerging Innovation Excellence Award: Dr Nicole Vorster
Creative Output Award (Violin): David Bester
Creative Output Award (Piano): Dr Erika Bothma
Creative Output Award (Photography): Prof Heidi Saayman-Hattingh
Creative Output Award (Sculpture): Andrieta Wentzel
Professional and Support Staff (PASS) Team Award: Payroll Team, Finance Department
Professional and Support Staff (PASS) Excellence Award in Peromnes level 8- 9: Imtiaz Khan, Karen Snyman, Nomatungwa Mti and Salome van der Riet.
Professional and Support Staff (PASS) Excellence Award in Peromnes level 10- 12: Kendra Roodt
Top award winners at the Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Awards function were (from left) Emerging Excellent Teacher of the Year Danai Tembo, Researcher of the Year Prof Pierre Pistorius, Excellent Teacher of the Year Lizel Bester and Emerging Researcher of the Year Dr Adeniyi Ogunlaja.