Graduation - September 2011

Three of my students completed their PhD degrees over the last couple of months and were awarded the degrees yesterday.  Unfortunately Wesley Brandi could not make it from the US to receive his degree in person, but Neil Croft and Wynand van Staden were present.

Neil, I and Wynand

Ah, there is something nice about these academic ceremonies that hark back to their roots in centuries past - a rare constant in a world where everything else is ephemeral.

And yes, congratulations to the three of them for persevering!

Madeleine wins a fellowship

It is always nice when one's students' work is recognised.  Last Thursday it was announced that Madeleine Bihina Bella was one of the ten winners of a 2011 L’Oréal-UNESCO Regional Fellowship for Women in Science in Sub-Saharan Africa.  This means prestige, extra duties and money (for her).

 Madeleine, who hails from Cameroon, completed her Honours project in our ICSA lab.  She then completed her MSc with Prof Jan Eloff as supervisor and me as co-supervisor.  She recently embarked on her PhD - this time with me as supervisor and Prof Jan Eloff (who moved to SAP) as co-supervisor.

Below we party in South African, Cameroonian style. For some reason we were the last guests to leave...