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Livestream via Central University of Technology on 25 October 2022. Register here to attend via Zoom.
| 25 October 2022 | ||
| Facilitators: Ms Constance Ndumela, Sol Plaatje University and Mr Emmanuel Zungu, Central University of Technology | ||
| Opening and welcome | 09:00 - 09:15 |
Ms Jeannet Molopyane, Director, |
| African Open Science Platform | 09:15 - 10:00 | Dr Nokuthula Mchunu, Deputy Director of the African Open Science Platform (AOSP) |
| Beginning in Open Access | 10:00 - 10:20 |
Ms Monica Boland & Mr George Moloi, |
| Recognition of research output | 10:20 - 10:40 | Prof. Bankole Awuzie, Central University of Technology |
| Big data in Open Science | 10:40 - 11:00 |
Herkulaas Combrink, Co-Director, Interdisciplinary Centre for Prof. Katinka de Wet, Co-Director, Interdisciplinary Centre for |
| Q&A | 11:00 - 11:30 | |
| Closing | 11:30 - 11:45 |
Dr Molapo Qhobela, Vice Rector, Institutional Mr Charlie Molepo, Deputy Director, Library and |
Dr Nokhutula Mchunu is the Deputy Director at the African Open Science Platform hosted by the National Research Foundation, South Africa. Dr Mchunu has a wealth of experience in academia outreach programmes, the popularisation of science, and STEM with local communities. She was senior Researcher from the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa in the Biotechnology Platform. She completed her doctoral degree in fungal genomics, was previously a senior scholar in the Department of Biotechnology of Durban University of Technology for more that 15 years. She has also served as a scientist in a number of international institutions including the University of Cincinnati (USA), Lund University (Sweden), Tianjin University, (China) and the Centre for Chemical Biology (Malaysia). She is the first recipient of the Young Scientist Programme between China and South Africa. Her research focused on Covid and pathogen surveillance in wastewater, fungal genetics, Cannabis and Africa legume genomics.
Herkulaas Combrink is a data scientist with a specialization in applied data science and autonomous decision making in artificial intelligence. He was appointed as the interim co-director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Futures, University of the Free State.
Dr Katinka de Wet is a medical sociologist and since 2021, she was appointed as the interim co-director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Futures, University of the Free State.
Dr Molapo Qhobela is the Vice-Rector of Institutional Change, Strategic Partnerships and Societal Impact at the University of the Free State. He started his career at Rhodes University in 1991 as a lecturer in microbiology and pharmacy, after which he joined the University of Cape Town and later the public service sector. After 1998 he served as Chief Director: Higher Education Policy and Development Support in the Department of Education and later as Deputy Director General: Higher Education in the same department. From 2010 he was Deputy Director General: Human Capital and Knowledge Systems in the Department of Science and Technology and Vice-Principal: Institutional Development at UNISA. In 2016 he joined the NRF as Chief Executive Officer before coming to the UFS.