UKZN’s leading academics and top researchers were honoured at the University’s Annual Research Dinner held at the Durban Country Club on December 1.

The prestigious dinner provides an opportunity for the University’s Research Office to recognise exceptional research and research-related scholarly activities as well as to honour and award UKZN researchers.

Those recognised were University Fellows, the Top Published Researcher, the Top Published Woman Researcher, and the Vice-Chancellor’s award and book prize winners.

Professor Purshottama Reddy of the School of Public Administration and Development Management, attended the 33^rd Roundtable Conference in Lilongwe, Malawi.

The conference titled: “Strengthening Citizen Engagement Through Decentralisation to Enhance Public Service Delivery in Africa,” was co–hosted by the African Association for Public Administration and Management (AAPAM) and the Government of Malawi.

UKZN botanists are concerned about the conservation of the Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia pauciflora), a rare and indigenous African lily, that is being threatened with extinction as plans to sell its natural habitat for development are at an advanced stage.

The Clairwood Racecourse in Durban is the last standing natural environment of the flower - commonly known as the ‘Racecourse Lily’ -  and now the site is being sold to Calshelf Investments 216, under the Cavaleros Group.

A UKZN scientist was chosen as the best oral presenter in a section at the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation’s (ANDI) annual stakeholder meeting in Ethiopia recently.

The meeting was held to recognise 32 African institutions being declared ANDI Centres of Excellence in Health Innovation.

Postdoctoral research fellow, Dr James Dama Habila, was selected as the best oral presenter in the natural product traditional medicine plenary session during the conference.

UKZN academics presented papers at the Network for Regional Integration Studies (NETRIS) Conference hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Ethiopia last month.

The conference titled: “Regional Integration in ACP Countries: Challenges and Prospects,” took into consideration past and relevant contributions made by the NETRIS-ACP Higher Education partner institutions and associates in the field of comparative regional integration.

The University of KwaZulu-Natal is intimately involved in a project to develop writing and publishing in local languages in Uganda and Ethiopia.

UKZN’s New Readers Publishers, attached to the Centre for Adult Education, is a Delphe project– Development Partnerships in Higher Education partnership – which is funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DfID).

The Faculty of Health Sciences’ Awards Day was an event of celebration, thanksgiving and acknowledgement of the successes and achievements of the Faculty since its inception in 2005.

This was the final awards ceremony for the Faculty as next year ushers in UKZN’s new College model with unified super schools instead of faculties.

‘As the era of faculties at UKZN comes to a close, I want to formally acknowledge and extend my appreciation to the academic and administrative leadership of the faculty in the past seven years,’ said Dean and Head of the new School of Health Sciences, Professor Sabiha Essack.

The College of Health Sciences hosted a public lecture by Dr Robert Fleischmann, Professor at the J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) and Administrative Director of the Pathogen Functional Genomics Resource Centre in the United States.

Fleischmann’s talk was titled: “The Pathogen Functional Genomic Resource Centre (PFGRC) in drug resistance and a novel platform for Mtb drug resistance surveillance.” The centre assists biodefence communities in their fight against several infectious diseases.

Staff with long service at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine were recognised at a well attended awards ceremony.

The School’s Dean, Professor Umesh Lalloo, congratulated academic and support staff members who had served 15 or 25 years in the Faculty. Retiring staff members were also lauded for their many years of service to the Medical School and provincial hospitals.

Lalloo encouraged the entire faculty to continue their hard work, commitment and dedication they displayed for the Medical School, its development and research.

Water Harvesting Technologies Revisited (WHaTeR) is a four-year collaborative project funded by the European Commission which includes UKZN as one of its nine research partners.

UKZN participates in the projects through the School of Bioresources Engineering and Environmental Hydrology on the Pietermaritzburg campus. The School’s expertise in water harvesting and South Africa’s need for more effective water harvesting make UKZN a critical partner in the research project.

The project will be implemented in three stages, with site revisits and situational analysis comprising the initial stage.

UKZN’s School of Nursing hosted a World Health Organisation’s (WHO) capacity building workshop on the use of innovative tools and approaches to support evidence-informed policy making.

Uniting international delegates from France, Cameroon, Brazzaville, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Malawi, Ouagadougou, South Africa’s National Department of Health, and WHO Collaborating Centres, the workshop was highly successful.

The Margaret Kirkwood Hall on the Pietermaritzburg campus was the venue for the reunion of graduates from UKZN’s Student Leadership Course in 2000.

It was also an occasion to celebrate the leadership of Ms Marie Odendaal, the Head of the Student Leadership Development Office, who retires this year.

Co-ordinated by Ms Rose Makoae - a graduate from the 2000 cohort and now a UKZN staff member - the reunion brought together six other graduates from as far as Cape Town, some of whom are leaders in public life.