Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
Prof Anton Ströh, Dean
Telephone number: 012 420 2478
Fax number: 012 420 5441
E-mail address: dean.nas@up.ac.za
Message by the Dean
During 2010, the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural
Sciences extended its boundaries again to further
establish itself as one of the leading science faculties on
the continent. The Faculty annually makes a substantial
contribution to the building of research capacity in
South Africa by providing highly skilled graduates, as
well as generating new scientific knowledge through its
internationally recognised research publications.
During the year under review, the provisional count
indicates that the Faculty exceeded the significant
number of 300 Department of Higher Education
and Training (DHET) units, which is a considerable
improvement on the 282 units published in 2009. The
total DHET units recorded constitute more than 25% of
the total publication output of the University of Pretoria.
It is noteworthy to mention that through the Faculty’s
research endeavours for 2010, 106 MSc and 50 PhD
students graduated. In addition to this, the Faculty
awarded honorary doctorates to the following world-
renowned scientists: Prof Rudi van Eldik (Chemistry)
from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Prof KR
Rajagopal (Applied Mathematics) from the University
of Texas A&M and Prof WA Jesser (Physics) from the
University of Virginia.
The strong research ethos of the Faculty is re-
emphasised by the fact that 112 of its scientists
are formally recognised by the National Research
Foundation’s (NRF) peer evaluation system for the high
quality and impact of their research on the national and
international front. Although it is not possible to mention
all the special awards in recognition of the Faculty’s
scientists, it is appropriate to note a number of the
outstanding achievements for 2010.
Prof Bernard Slippers of the Department of Genetics
was awarded the Southern African Association for the
Advancement of Science (S2A3) British Association
Medal (silver) for 2010. Prof Pat Eriksson and
Prof Debra Meyer were honoured with prestigious
awards from the National Science and Technology
Forum (NSTF). Prof Eriksson (Geology) was
awarded the 2010 NSTF Lifetime Award for his major
contributions on Precambrian sedimentation systems.
Prof Meyer (Biochemistry) was awarded the Senior
Black Researcher Award for her significant contributions
in HIV/AIDS research. Prof John Taylor (Food Science)
was elected as a fellow of the International Academy
of Food Science and Technology, while Prof Amanda
Minnaar (Food Science) was elected to serve on the
Technical Management Advisory Committee (TMAC) of
the USAID-funded Dry Grains and Pulses Coordinated
Research Support Programme (CRSP). Prof Nigel
Bennett (Zoology and Entomology) and Prof Rashid
Hassan (Centre for Environmental Economics Policy
in Africa) both received the University’s Chancellor’s
Medal for Research. Prof Sue Nicolson (Zoology and
Entomology) was awarded the Gold Medal of the
Zoological Society of Southern Africa. She was also first
runner-up in the DST’s Distinguished Woman Scientist
in Life Sciences Awards and was elected a fellow of the
Royal Society of South Africa. She obtained a three-
year grant for research on the nutritional physiology of
bees as part of the UK government’s Insect Pollinators
Initiative, which has invested £10 million in response to
concerns about declining pollinators. Prof Braam van
Wyk (HGWJ Schweickerdt Herbarium) was honoured
by the South African Academy for Science and Arts
with the Havenga prize for his extensive research
contributions over a lifetime.
Being people-centred, the Faculty continuously seeks
opportunities to recruit and appoint highly recognised
researchers to either strengthen its existing research
teams or to introduce new and relevant research foci
within the Faculty.
During 2010, the Faculty was successful in recruiting
Prof Sheryl Hendriks to the Department of Agricultural
Economics, Extension and Rural Development to
consolidate food security research at UP and to
establish a postgraduate programme. She is one of only
three experts from Africa appointed to the High-level
Panel of Experts for Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE)
of the Committee for World Food Security (CFS). She
is furthermore one of 15 world-class experts selected
from over 240 international nominations and recently
participated in the inaugural meeting of the panel in
Rome. The Faculty, in collaboration with the faculties of
Education, Health Sciences and Veterinary Science, is
currently in the process of establishing an institutional
research theme in food, nutrition and wellbeing. This
multidisciplinary theme will draw on the expertise of
more than 50 researchers across the University to
contribute to the emerging societal challenges related
to food insecurity, nutrition deficiencies and hunger,
especially in Africa, through major research projects.
The Faculty was also successful in recruiting Prof Bob
Millar as the new Director of the Mammal Research
Institute (MRI), who will take up this position in
April 2011. For the past 12 years, Prof Millar was the
Director of the Medical Research Council’s Human
Reproductive Sciences Unit in Edinburgh. Associated
with Prof Millar’s appointment is the plan to develop a
centre of excellence in research on African mammals.
This initiative would incorporate the MRI, the research
component of the National Zoological Gardens (now
an NRF facility) and researchers from the Faculty
of Veterinary Science, as well as other national and
international players. Research carried out at the centre
will provide strong interdisciplinary science aimed at
conserving the diversity of the unique and charismatic
mammal fauna of southern Africa in the face of growing
pressures at the human-wildlife interface.
The Faculty successfully negotiated and implemented
two South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI)
chairs during 2010 for the period 2011–2015: the Social
Science Chair in Nonparametric, Robust Statistical
Inference and Statistical Process Control, held by
Prof Subhabrata Chakraborti from the Department
of Information Systems, Statistics and Management
Science, University of Alabama, USA, and the Chair in
Complex Systems, held by Prof Pavel A Selyshchev
from the Department of Physics, Kiev National Taras
Shevchenko University, Ukraine.
The Faculty continued to strengthen its networks
with national and international partners. Prof Hannes
Rautenbach (Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology) will collaborate with the University of
Tokyo over the next three years in a high-profile
international project on seasonal climate forecasting.
South Africa is a water-stressed country, and forecasts
of rainfall and temperature in advance can be of great
value to early warning and water resource planning,
especially in the agricultural sector. The R30 million
project funding was granted by the Japanese Science
and Technology Agency (JST) and the Japanese
International Cooperation Agency (JICA) through
an agreement with the South African Department of
Science and Technology (DST). In South Africa, the
project is coordinated by the newly established national
Applied Centre for Climate and Earth System Sciences
(ACCESS), where Prof Rautenbach also serves on the
steering committee.
Another feather in the Faculty’s cap was the selection
of the Faculty as the southern African region’s focal
institution for the African Network for Agriculture,
Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education
(ANAFE). The mission of ANAFE is to improve
agricultural and natural resources education for impact
on development. In order to fully achieve sustainable
development in African countries, agricultural and
natural resource education on tertiary level is of
critical importance. Being selected as a regional focal
institution is a great honour and will benefit the Faculty’s
postgraduate training significantly. The University will
be the southern African centre for all agricultural and
natural resource training and research transformation
activities through ANAFE. This should be seen as
an excellent opportunity to improve the visibility and
influence of the University of Pretoria in terms of
capacity-building, while contributing to the development
of the continent and achievement of food security.
Dr Casper Madakadze (Plant Production and Soil
Science) was appointed as the senior education fellow
for the southern African node.
The Faculty has a longstanding collaboration through
contracts and joint projects with North Carolina State
University, mainly on forestry-related research through
the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute
(FABI). Recently, both universities realised that this
relationship should be expanded to include collaboration
on a broader scale, including other faculties. In 2010,
both universities committed funds to establish a seed
grant programme to foster in-depth collaboration
between the two universities. Four grants were awarded
and the winning projects are currently underway. This
initiative now also involves researchers from the Faculty
of Economic and Management Sciences and the
Faculty of Education.
The Department of Food Science launched the new
UP LabWorld Food Research Laboratory, with state-
of-the-art equipment. This facility will help to intensify
the Department’s research efforts in existing research
focus areas and explore a new research area focusing
on the use of food nanotechnology, metabolomics and
food microtechnology in the development of anti-cancer,
gluten-free, low-fat, low-GI and lifestyle-enhancing
foods. LabWorld, who sponsored nearly R2 million of
the total cost of the equipment and facilities, showed its
support for the research endeavours of the Faculty, and
especially of the Department of Food Science.
What has started as a Southern Education and
Research Alliance (SERA) focus area on remote
sensing four years ago between the Department of
Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology at the
University of Pretoria and the National Laser Centre
(NLC) at the Council for Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR) has developed into a comprehensive
research network between UP, the NLC, the Meraka
Institute, the CSIR’s Satellite Application Centre (SAC)
and the Space Geodesy Group at HartRAO. These
groups are closely interacting with UP on different levels
of research and education, which puts the Faculty of
Natural and Agricultural Sciences in a good position
to become actively involved in the newly established
South African National Space Agency (SANSA).
Another development in the pipeline is the
establishment of a Carbon Capture and Storage
Working Group (CCSWG) at UP, in cooperation with
the South African Centre for Carbon Capture and
Storage (SACCCS), the Council for Geoscience, the
University’s Chemistry Department and the Centre for
Smart Interfaces, TU Darmstadt, Germany. Up to now,
three MSc, one PhD and several BSc(Hons) projects
have been involved at UP and through the Council for
Geoscience. The Master of Technology, Vaal University
of Technology, the University of Western Sydney and
CSIR PhD and MSc students are also involved in this
research. Another PhD, closely related to the subject, is supervised by Prof Altermann in Germany. It is hoped to
establish a Council for Geoscience research institution at UP as an outcome of the multidisciplinary CCSWG. Apart
from the departments of Geology, Chemistry and Physics, Microbiology should also become an important part of this
research.
The Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Pretoria is one of the most diverse science
faculties in South Africa. This can be attested by the broad scope of research findings that are showcased in the
Faculty’s research highlights in this report.
Prof Anton Ströh
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