Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
Prof A Ströh, Dean
Telephone number: 012 420 3201
Fax number: 012 420 3890
E-mail address: dean.nas@up.ac.za
Message from the Dean
The Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences has an exceptionally strong research ethos. This fact is substantiated by the increased focus on producing quality research publications in ISI accredited journals in order to ensure strong international participation. It is noticeable that over the past three years we ensured that almost 90% of all our articles were published in international journals. For the same period a definite upward trend in the number of DoE subsidised publication units was noticed, with an overall high of more than 300 units reached for 2006.
The faculty rates among the best science faculties in the country. A significant number of our scientists are evaluated internationally and as a result, acknowledged through the National Research Foundation (NRF) by their peers as researchers of high international standing and in some cases as world leaders in their fields.
It is noteworthy to mention that Prof Clarke Scholtz from the Department of Zoology & Entomology received an A-rating and Prof Zander Myburg from the Department of Genetics a P-rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF).
Prof Rashid Hassan, Director of the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa (CEEPA), was awarded the prestigious Kofi Anan Zayed International Prize for his contribution to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) project, while our Director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), Prof Mike Wingfield received a Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme (THRIP) excellence award for his valuable contributions in the category Human Resource Development.
Exciting new strategic initiatives took place during 2006, which is expected to have a significant impact on future research:
School of Agricultural and Food Sciences: Recent changing trends in agricultural and food markets locally and globally provides interesting and exciting new opportunities for researchers. A consumer with greater concerns over food safety, quality, nutrition and health attributes and reputation of food products resulted in interesting responses from food producers and food retailers, resulted in fluctuating markets and greater demands on the operation of the “fork-to-farm” supply chain.
The departments are appropriately responding to these trends by improving laboratories and research facilities (i.e. further investment on the experimental farm such as the improvement in the dairy parlour, and the small stock section) to address these many research opportunities in a multidisciplinary fashion and mostly with international collaborators.
The Department of Food Science has initiated a strategic move to integrate food science, health and nutrition while nutrition and health aspects are also more and more becoming an integral part of the research activities of the Department of Animal Science, Consumer Science and Plant production and Soil Science. As an illustration of the strengthening of international networks on these themes January 2007 saw the launch of two EU 6th framework research projects where Departments of this school are partners in the research consortia: “Quality improved pork chains” (Agricultural Economics) and “innovative and healthful products” (Food Science).
The Animal Science department will focus on the nutrition, breeding and underlying physiological principles of domesticated and wild animals in a variety of production systems, as well as the quality of livestock products.
The world is also grasped in the new trend towards bio fuels. The Department of Plant Production and Soil Science has embarked on a concerted drive to forge links with crop producer organizations, with the aim to promote more effective and sustainable production practices. Scientific support for crop production systems is augmented by research on the biological rehabilitation of sites that have been disturbed by industrial activities, e.g. mining.
Here, the Department also has several projects related to finding suitable crops for this purpose while the Department of Agricultural Economics has economic models in place to assist the policy and economic decisions regarding the bio fuels policy in South Africa. Already the Presidential Working Group has recommended that this model be used in future for all economic analysis on aspects of the proposed bio fuels policy.
School for Biological Sciences: The University is recognised internationally for the significance of its water research. During the past decade more than 40 highly qualified, internationally recognised researchers and their students in various faculties have completed many successful research projects related to water supply, sanitation and integrated water resource management, providing state-of-the-art technology to the water sector leading up to the establishment of the University Water Institute towards the end of 2006.
With its focus on research and training, the institute will build on strategic alliances that have been established with the CSIR (for research) and the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, USA (for internationally accredited postgraduate training).
UP has contributed to postgraduate education linked to the South African forestry industry for many years. In this regard, MSc. and PhD. degrees have been conferred to scientists and managers working in forestry in specialised fields. These include amongst others, fields such as genetics, botany, plant pathology, entomology, chemical engineering and business management.
In 2006 the UP’s offering in the Plant Sciences linked to Forestry were expanded and a specialised MSc and PhD “Forest Sciences” option was introduced. A new postgraduate Medicinal Plant Science degree option will also be introduced in 2007.
It will be a multidisciplinary and collaborative research programme incorporating Botany, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology and other disciplines concerned with safety and efficacy issues of commonly used and new phytomedicines. These initiatives form part of our strategy to increase student numbers on postgraduate level.
The Laboratory for Microscopy and Microanalysis acquired a confocal laser-scanning microscope in 2006. This instrument will be available to the scientific community and is the only one of its kind in the region. The Zeiss LSM 510 META is equipped with four lasers, which generate seven lines of laser light.
It, therefore, allows for more opportunities to exploit a greater variety of fluorescent molecules. Confocal laser scanning microscopy allows the researcher to visualize biological specimens in the alive or fixed state. It can therefore be applied to detect specific molecules and their interactions in cells at small concentrations and with a good signal-to-background ratio.
It has the further advantage that it produces optical sections by the in depth scanning of bulk samples. These optical sections can then be used to create 3-D and dynamic images of samples with the aid of sophisticated computer software.
School of Mathematical Sciences: The internationalisation of the School, which is one of its high priorities, reached a culminating point in 2006 with the research visit of Prof Laurent Lafforgue, Fields Medallist (Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, France). Lafforgue, whose visit was hosted by the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics from 6 November to 2 December 2006, gave a motivational talk that was widely attended.
He also delivered a series of advanced lectures, which, thanks to the direct involvement of the French Embassy, are likely to have an impact on the School plan to embark on research and postgraduate study in new areas, which include aspects of Differential Geometry, Algebraic Topology and Number Theory.
In addition to this the School formalised an existing partnership with the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Italy by signing a Federation Arrangement according to which the ICTP will provide substantial financial support for young researchers from the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics to visit the ICTP.
School of Physical Sciences: During this year the Chemistry and the Physics Departments obtained substantial contracts from PBMR for the development of the fuel elements of the PBMR nuclear reactor. The pending fossil fuel energy crisis has made energy production via nuclear reactor an exciting option to consider.
The new regulations of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the International Atomic Energy Commission in Vienna on new nuclear reactors require many new features to ensure safer reactors. The PBMR reactor belongs to this new generation of nuclear reactors.
Carbon is a key element in the PBMR reactor. Many tons of highly purified carbon is employed as neutron moderators in the reactor. In addition, the small PBMR fuel spheres also contain several layers of carbon. Thus research into the science of carbon is of paramount importance for the success of the PBMR reactor.
The Department of Science and Technology has awarded the University a Chair in Carbon Technology and Materials. The Chair was officially launched on 2 August 2006 (see photograph on p..). The Chair is located in the Institute of Applied Materials, which resides jointly under the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology and the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
It will be funded by the DST for five years to the amount of R2 million per annum. During 2006 two short courses on carbon materials technology were presented with the help of Prof Harry Schobert of Penn State University and Prof Brian Rand and Dr Aidan Westwood from Leeds University.
Other relevant highlights, accomplishments and awards either follows this introduction or are mentioned under other sections of the report. The Faculty will continue to focus on becoming international leaders in selected areas of expertise.
Prof A Ströh
Dean
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