The M.T. Steyn Medal, awarded by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (South African Academy for Science and Art), is one of the Academy’s most important tributes for leadership at the highest level.  Receipt of the medal can be regarded as the culmination of an academic’s life’s-work and can only be awarded once to any particular person.  Described by the Academy as the most productive scientist in South Africa, Professor van Staden was presented with the award at a formal ceremony in Pretoria at the beginning of October.

The realities of climate change demand that South Africa move away from its high (almost 90 percent) reliance on coal for electricity generation to more renewable sources of power.  The UKZN-Karebo partnership aims to address this issue by establishing a multidisciplinary Renewable Energy Technology Centre aimed at: promoting excellence in sustainable energy research and technological development, fostering scholarship and skills transfer, and creating and disseminating knowledge on renewable energy.

The Centre for Civil Society (CCS) held a seminar on Rising to the Adaption Challenge? Responding to Global Environmental Change in the Durban Metropolitan and Ugu District Regions by Ms Hayley Leck where she presented an overview of her research and fieldwork experiences and provided a tentative outline of some of her main findings so far.

Ms Leck is a PhD student at the Royal Holloway University London and a UKZN graduate. She has been a visiting scholar at the CCS during her fieldwork period which began in October 2009 and will be shortly returning to London where she will complete her final year.

Ms Leck said that global environmental change or, more narrowly, climate change is now widely recognised as the most formidable challenge facing humanity in the 21st century and beyond. The adverse effects of climate change are disproportionately distributed and it is the already vulnerable and marginalised who stand to be most affected.

Guests attending the panel discussion South African Indians – 150 years and Beyond at UKZN on September 29 celebrated the heritage of the Indian community whose beginnings in South Africa date back to the 1860s when they were brought to the country to work as indentured labour.

Great grand-daughter of Mahatma Gandhi and the Chancellor of the Durban University of Technology Mrs Ela Gandhi, and UKZN academics, Professors Hoosen Coovadia, Brij Maharaj and Dr Lubna Nadvi addressed a diverse audience on the history of the Indian community in South Africa and their meteoric rise in all sectors of society from humble beginnings.

Lecturer in Geography Professor Maharaj, presented a historical perspective on the Indian community and their resilience in making a success of their lives despite numerous hardships, and living conditions tantamount to slavery.

The Faculty of Education’s Postgraduate Sector and Research Office held a Faculty Research Day on October 1.

Masters and doctoral students presented oral and poster presentations based on a chapter from their dissertation, thesis or research publication. The oral presentations were intended to provide them with support in developing their ideas and enhancing the quality of their individual research projects.

In her lecture titled, The Question(s) of Education Research, education linguist from the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Education Practice Research, Professor Elizabeth Henning emphasised the importance of research in education.

After graduating from the former University of Natal in 1997 with a BSocSci degree Mr Spaull went on to work at Parliament in Cape Town as a researcher and speechwriter for the Leader of the Opposition.  He subsequently held positions as Director of Communications in the Office of the Western Cape Premier and Head of Communications in the national Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism before joining the private sector as a partner in a private equity fund providing start-up funding to small and medium size businesses.

The Symposium was attended by 39 delegates from 12 African countries, including the Director of the Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED), Professor Carel IJsselmuiden, who is based in Geneva, Switzerland and the Dean of Humanities at UKZN, Professor Nhlanhla J Mkhize.

We are all aware of global environmental deterioration, and the critical issues of lack of water and energy here in South Africa. But are we doing something ourselves to combat the environmental crisis? As an initiative to spark environmental awareness on Howard College, a group of concerned students and staff has decided to do something to make a change and have launched the “Greening UKZN Campaign.” 

The Campaign kicked off on the Howard College campus on September 30 with students setting up a green corner that engaged both students and staff on issues pertaining to the environment.  Students and staff across the disciplines were seen at the green corner to learn more on how to create a more sustainable environmental behaviour.

Campaign member Ms Anja Bakken said a walk about of the Howard College campus alone had shown that lights are turned on 24 hours a day; air conditioners are left on and taps are often left open. “The wastage of huge amounts of paper, energy and water has a negative impact on the environment. Pollution is a big problem in Durban but we do not actively do much to address the problem. We would like students to become more involved in our programme to create a safer environment,” said Ms Bakken.

Speaking for the dead: an anatomists ethical reflections on the dead human body was the topic of a public lecture on October 12 at UKZN by Professor Gareth Jones, Director of the Bioethics Centre and Professor of Anatomy and Structural Biology at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Professor Jones said, “Anatomists need ethics, however this has not always been so. After all, if anatomists fail to address ethical issues of direct relevance to the study of the dead human body, who is expected to do this? And yet anatomists have repeatedly fallen down when it has come to asserting the primacy of ethical standards in their profession. They have paid far too little attention to ethical strictures, and this has opened the way to some appalling ethical lapses in anatomical practice.

“As I have reflected on these issues, it has seemed that the manner in which we respond to the dead, the use we make of their skeletal remains and tissues, and the ways in which we learn about ourselves by studying them, raise ethical queries that go to the heart of what it means to be human, said Professor Jones”.

Humbled by the completion of her doctoral degree in Nursing Education, Dr Sindisiwe Mthembu, who likens the experience to having conquered the world, was congratulated by UKZN’s Faculty of Health Sciences on her achievement.

Dr Mthembu started her PhD titled: The analysis of knowledge construction in community based service-learning programmes for basic nursing education at two selected nursing education institutions in South Africa in 2007.

This study explored the phenomenon of knowledge construction in basic nursing programmes in two selected South African nursing schools to generate a middle range theoretical model that may be used to guide the process of knowledge construction in community based service-learning programmes.

Students from the UKZN’s College of Health Sciences enrolled in undergraduate programmes participated in a Young Health Scientists Research Symposium which was held at UKZN and hosted in partnership with Pfizer - the largest private pharmaceutical research organisation in the world, on October 4.

“This annual Research Symposium is designed to showcase and highlight the recent scientific and clinical research from the College’s young health scientists,” said Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Health Sciences, Professor Tahir Pillay.

Seven groups of students had the opportunity to present research projects which were judged by a panel of health scientists from UKZN and Pfizer South Africa - the main sponsor of the event. These presentations are an integral part of what the students can anticipate in their careers.

The 14^th Poetry Africa festival at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on the Howard College campus created a wonderful buzz. This annual event ran from October 4-8 at UKZN and closed at Durban’s Bat Centre on October 9.

This year’s festival featured 22 participants from 12 different countries. Apart from thoroughly entertaining nights at the Sneddon Theatre, the activities included seminars, workshops, poetry competitions, open mic opportunities and school visits.

The Director for the Centre for Creative Arts (CCA) Peter Rorvik said it is evident that music and poetry spring from the same well of creativity. The festival opened with a spectacular performance by internationally acclaimed artists, Ernie Smith and Concord Nkabinde, followed by a poetry marathon which featured the various poets that presented their work throughout the week.

The play is often studied by students of drama because the playwright is commonly referred to as the 'father of modern drama'. At the turn of the century his work was an important part of the move away from the Romantic style of 19th century theatre toward realism. Students and the general public came out to see Ibsen’s play which explores hypocrisy around issues such as illegitimate children, venereal disease, incest, infidelity, and euthanasia.