More NRF-ratings for Wits
- Wits University
Professors Florian Luca and Lynn Morris receive their A-ratings.
The number of National Research Foundation-rated researchers at Wits is growing with Professors Florian Luca and Lynn Morris recently awarded A-ratings.
Professor Florian Luca is one of the world’s leading authorities on number theory and analysis. Number theory is a vast field of mathematics that include the study of the properties of whole numbers. It provides answers to real world problems in a number of fields, including digital communication, computer technology, the secure coding of banking transactions and cryptology.
“As a number theorist I am drawn to questions about integer numbers and study the equations with integer solutions. The study of such questions belongs to a part of mathematics called analytic number theory.”
Professor Lynn Morris is based in the School of Pathology in the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences and heads up the Virology Laboratory in the Centre for HIV and STIs in the National Institute for Communicable Diseases of the National Health Laboratory Service.
For the past 20 years, Morris has been involved in researching the virological and immunological aspects of South African HIV-1 subtype C strains, which has made significant contributions to our understanding of how the antibody response to HIV develops. This includes the genetic and phenotypic characterisation of HIV strains, as well as measuring neutralising antibodies in infected people.