Alumni in the news
-
A round-up of Witsies making the news in October 2018
Wits now has its own Parkrun, which starts and ends in the vicinity of Alumni House and Olives & Plates on West Campus. Here’s a video of the first run, overseen by legendary runner and Wits alumnus Bruce Fordyce with a little help from Wits mascot Kudos Kudu: https://youtu.be/c6G7IEioGWw
Professor Glenda Gray (MBBCh 1986) wrote for The Conversation about ending the HIV epidemic by 2030.
Professor Ruksana Osman (BA 1984, MEd 1992, PhD 2003), Dean of Humanities at Wits, wrote for The Conversation about how the humanities can equip students for the fourth industrial revolution.
Safia Mahomed’s PhD thesis has informed South African law governing the transfer of human tissue across South Africa’s borders for health research.
Professor Lee Berger (PhD 1994, DSc 2014), in partnership with the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas, announced a world-first virtual reality app to view the Dinaledi cave, where Homo naledi fossils were found.
Palaeontology postgraduate student Cebisa Mdekazi (BSc 2017, BSc Hons 2018) told the Daily Dispatch about working on a dinosaur fossil site in the Eastern Cape, where she grew up.
Professor Ivan Vladislavić’s short story “Save the Pedestals” has been adapted into a theatre work by director Robyn Orlin in collaboration with the Handspring Puppet Company. The world premiere was in Germany in October and the production will travel to the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town next year.
Dr Adele Seeff (BA 1959) has published “South Africa's Shakespeare and the Drama of Language and Identity”, which she says traces “the pivotal role that Shakespearean performances have played over three centuries in the history of political struggle and contested national identities in South Africa”.
Alumni once again featured in the prestigious annual awards made by the Vice-Chancellor. Prof Patrick Arbuthnot (BSc 1982, BSc Hons 1984, MBBCh 1985, PhD 1993), Director of the Wits/SAMRC Antiviral Gene Therapy Research Unit, received the Vice-Chancellor’s Research Award. His research interest is gene therapy to treat hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and liver cancer. Prof Johnny Mahlangu (BSc 1988, MBBCh 1984, MMed 2008), Head of the School of Pathology, received the VC’s Academic Citizenship Award for his academic work in the study of haemophilia.
Prof Lenore Manderson and Prof Christo Doherty held a dialogue about whether the Watershed conference at Wits bridged the divide between art and science. The conference brought together artists, engineers, scientists and activists working in distinctive ways on issues of planetary survival. Download here.
Dr Bryan Theunissen (MBBCh 1995) told Weekend Post how he made an innovative surgical plan to save the hand of a little girl.
Brett Strydom (BSc 2001) told Skyways magazine about navigating campus with a guide dog. (Article not yet available online.)
Former management consultant Joy Phala (BCom 2011) is now a landscape designer and foodie who established Organic Kitchen Gardens. Read her story here.
Michelle Green-Thompson (BA 2007) has published “Those Who Travel Meet Themselves”, a book of stories about how travelling has changed the lives of black South Africans. In this video she tells an interviewer more about it.