Western Cape universities came out tops at the National Research Foundation Awards, walking away with 15 academic honours.
The annual awards took place in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday where 37 of South Africa’s top researchers were celebrated.
Fifteen of the academics celebrated were from three Western Cape universities, with the front-runner, the University of Cape Town (UCT), bagging 11 awards, followed by Stellenbosch University with three awards and one of the awards going to the University of the Western Cape (UWC).
Among others, a special award was made to emerging researcher Dr Mohlopheni Marakalala of UCT’s Department of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences.
The award recognises outstanding research excellence on the part of current Thuthuka grant holders.
The Hamilton Naki Award, which honours individuals for achieving world-class research performance despite considerable challenges, went to Professor Edmund February, Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, UCT.
The award is named after the self-taught surgeon who trained generations of medical students in surgical techniques.
Paving the way for the future of science, P-Ratings were awarded to young and upcoming researchers, under 35 years of age who have held a doctorate or equivalent qualification for less than five years at the time of application.
They included Dr Alistair Price, Department of Private Law, Faculty of Law, UCT and Dr Geoffrey Howarth from UCT’s Department of Geological Sciences.
A-ratings demonstrate unequivocal recognition of recipients by peers as leading international scholars for the high quality and impact of recent research outputs.
Among those awarded were Professor these were Roy Maartens from UWC’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty ofNatural Sciences, Professor Michael Samways from Stellenbosch University’s Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, Faculty of AgriSciences and Professor Simon Schaaf, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University.
A full list of awards can be found at http://www.nrf.ac.za/nrf-awards. Nicola Daniels