He was previously a professor at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and between 999 and 00 was Acting Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at UWC. Some of the research and development (R&D) related to these developments is located in certain universities (which still have well-resourced engineering faculties and spin-off companies).
Higher education institu- tions in South Africa
Traditionally, much of their research activity has been in the nature of a kind of 'cottage industry'. Categories 'A' and 'B' reflect international recognition in the respective field, category 'C' firm national prominence and 'P' a shining star for the future.
Public research institu- tions, including the science
Each of these facilities has staff, equipment and other resources designed to support full-time research and capacity development at the highest possible level in the relevant fields; many of their projects and programs will be described in the other chapters of this book.
Overall investment in sci- ence
The biennial R&D surveys conducted by the HSRC also measure the broad types of research being conducted in the country. At the same time, there are clear indications in the statistics that investments in basic and basic research are not receiving sufficient attention.
Trends in research output Problems in the application of bibliome-
In the group of the most productive universities, large differences are evident between the three (historically English medium) and. These patterns must be in conjunction with the dominance of the social sciences and humanities at the.
Transforming the human capital base
The latter, in turn, is a significant determinant of the extent to which a university enjoys high or low international recognition. The 22% contribution of women academics and scientists to the knowledge base is well below par, despite women academics now making up more than 40% of the university workforce.
Conclusion
In the Middle Ages, mathematics was considered a core area of study in universities in Britain and Europe, and when formal higher education began in the Cape Colony of South Africa in the mid-nineteenth century, the role of mathematics was also rightly recognized. nized. From 1850, mathematics was one of the three subjects examined when hiring civil servants in the Cape Colony.
Research capacity
The total number of master's and doctoral degree enrollments in the mathematical sciences across the country has grown from 735 in 2003 to 864 in 2006, which bodes well for the research pipeline. The number of PhD graduates in the mathematical sciences increased from 22 in 2003 to 28 in 2006, a fairly modest increase from a low base.
Research quality and impact
Of the 150 researchers rated by the NRF in 2006, the number of A and B ratings indicating internationally recognized researchers was only 48. Five universities (Pretoria, KwaZulu-Natal, Witwatersrand, Cape Town and Stellenbosch) accounted for more than 75% of all articles in research journals in the mathematical sciences.
Summary
There is also research activity in the area of graduate education development in mathematics, including language and technology issues. In close agreement with the previous point, it is disturbing that researchers in the mathematical sciences aged 40 and over accounted for more than 60% of the total peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2003 and 2006.
Concluding remarks
Bibliometric assessment of South African research publications included in the internationally indexed database of Thomson ISI 2006. Physics in South Africa dates back to the astronomical observations of Sir John Herschel at the Royal Observatory in Cape Town in the 1830s, the introduction of geomagnetic and surveying work, and the establishment of several universities and university colleges in the second half of the 19th century.
The role of the South Afri- can institute of Physics (SAIP)
A symptom of this decline was that SAJP became unstable and the last issue was published in December 1993.
Physics and the SAIP in the post-apartheid era
This is in response to DST/NRF's efforts to increase the number of high-quality Ph.D.s and to the reality that secondary education in physical sciences and mathematics is not improving visibly. The immediate success of the office is due to the fact that it implements DST strategies and NRF programs at the ground level.
Applied physics
In the past year, some members of APSG have been involved in the establishment of SAIP's Physics 500 Project, the purpose of which is to find and describe working physicists outside academia. In this way, the creation of research collaborations between industry and academia is a continued effort for the benefit of the country.
Astrophysics and space science Astrophysics and space science (ASS) in
The rest of the dishes can be spread as far as Ghana and Mauritius. The current South African National Antarctic Expedition (SANAE) base is located on a rocky outcrop 240 km from the edge of the ice shelf.
Condensed matter physics and materials science
In this respect, the new teaching and research activities at the UFS's Qwa-Qwa campus, and at the University of Zululand (UZ) in collaboration with UWK and the materials research group at iThemba LABS, are particularly noteworthy. Even the established universities and science councils have seen a resurgence in an interdisciplinary approach to materials research, with the establishment of the Center of Excellence for Strong Materials at Wits, and the National Center for Nanostructured Materials at the CSIR.
Education
In the 1970s and 1980s, much of the research focused on students' alternative beliefs and reasoning problems, in line with international physics education research at the time. Research in physics education continues to influence the design and development of the content, philosophy, and teaching approaches for these courses.
Lasers, optics and spectro- scopy
DST strongly supports laser research in South Africa and identifies it as an important emerging research area, and one where it is believed that researchers in South Africa have the potential to contribute to global knowledge. PISA aims to position South Africa as a globally competitive player in photonics by strengthening the development of human capital, investing in pure and applied photonics research and fostering a national photonics industry.
Nuclear, particle and radi- ation physics
Of the range of smaller accelerators, the 5 MV van de Graaff at iThemba LABS South is mainly used for materials, nanoscience, geological and biological research. AFRODITE) gamma-ray spectrometer at iThemba LABS South is among the ten most powerful instruments in the world for studying the quantum structure of nuclei.
Theoretical physics
Both AFRODITE and DIAMANT are in the process of connecting to a more advanced "triggerless" data collection system. A group at UJ is participating in the ATLAS experiment (a toroidal LHC apparatus), which aims to obtain a definitive determination of the mass of the Higgs boson.
Assessment and the future
The early 2000s saw major changes in the tertiary education landscape in South Africa as a result of the government's decision to rationalize most of the universities and technikons (see Chapter 1). The program met with some success, and there was a significant improvement in research output at some of the new universities of technology.
Inorganic chemistry
Extensive research has been carried out in the field of anionic carbene complexes of Fischer-type metals, particularly in relation to coinage metals. One is in the field of an organic/inorganic coupling (bio-inorganic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, ligand design) and the other of an inorganic/physical coupling (materials science, heterogeneous and, to some extent, homogeneous catalysis).
Organic chemistry, includ- ing bio-organic and biologi-
World authorities from the National Cancer Institute in the United States claim that "the utility of natural products as sources of new structures, but not necessarily as the final drug entity, is still alive and well" and thus makes reference to the area of anti- hypertension, and note that of 74 formally synthetic drugs, 48 can be traced back to natural product structures/mimics. It involves the development of new anti-infectives (anti-malaria, anti-tuberculosis, anti-HIV/AIDS and anti-trypanosomal), anti-hypertension and anti-cancer drugs and which has three main objectives: i) the development of targeted inhibitors;. ii) the development of single drugs that provide targeted inhibition of various disease-causing organisms or cells; and. iii) the development of single drugs that provide maximal anti-infective and anti-cancer activity by acting against multiple targets.
Physical chemistry, includ- ing polymer and theoretical
Theoretical research programs in chemistry are limited to a few universities in the country, but it is one of the universities. In doing so, a procedure was established that enables determination of the strength of intramolecular hydrogen bonds in biomolecules such as oligosaccharides.
Analytical and environ- mental chemistry
The program's research is threefold: theoretical studies (including modeling), laboratory experimentation, and environmental analysis. Many programs at various universities are focused on advanced separation science and the use of advanced techniques.
The Council for Scienti- fic and Industrial Research
Major changes in the activities of the CSIR began in 2005 as a result of the already described internal evaluation called 'Beyond 60'. As a result, many of the required skills had to be developed over time or outsourced.
Nuclear Energy Corpora- tion of South Africa (Necsa)
This grouping, essentially originating from Mattek at CSIR, has been consolidated into six competence areas together with the National Center for Nanostructured Materials (NCNSM), and it is in the latter that chemistry is primarily pursued. Going forward, this technology will also play an important role in reducing the amount of nuclear waste in the form of matrix destruction of compressible waste.
Mintek
The key to the success of this venture was the development of the necessary conditions for the precipitation of hydrated gold oxides on the oxide surface to ultimately achieve a uniform and well-dispersed precipitation of gold particles of the correct diameter. The research has resulted in the construction of a semi-commercial plant to produce sufficient quantities of the catalyst, marketed under the trade name AUROliteTM, for prototype evaluation by potential customers.
Sasol
This was commercialized in the 1990s with the successful extraction of a range of alcohols. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, this chemical extraction was extended to the separation of alpha-olefins from the Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbon product.
Future challenges and concluding remarks
Several of these areas are in the biological sciences (Lovegrove and Johnson, 2008), where South Africa ranks 18th in the world in terms of published output, and several South African universities are in the top 1% of cited institutions, worldwide, in biological fields (Pouris, 2007). South Africa has been a leader in digitizing voucher label information, providing an important global source of information.
Plant sciences
- Taxonomy and systematics
- Ethnobotany
- Plant reproductive bio- logy
- Resurrection plants
- Biotechnology
- Ecological sciences
- Plant physiology
The In Vitro Potato Gene Bank is the start of a potato certification scheme in South Africa. The term can be somewhat misleading, as grass-dominated vegetation occurs in many of the biomes (except the grassland biome) that occur in South Africa.
Animal sciences
- Freshwater life sciences
- Estuarine biosciences
- Marine biosciences
- Mammalian zoology
- Ornithology
- Entomology
Most of Roberts' published work was summarized in his 1940 book, Birds of South Africa. Today, in terms of the number and quality of manuals, field guides and other birding books, South Africa stands head and shoulders above most countries in the world.
Biotechnology and mole- Biotechnology and mole- cular biology
- Biodiversity and bio- prospecting
- Plant biotechnology
- Biofuels
- Structural biology
- Environmental genomics
- Biocatalysis and industri- al enzymology
This interest in bioprospecting South Africa's plant diversity has in the past been strongly underpinned by indigenous knowledge, based on the use of certain plants as therapeutic agents over millennia by the indigenous people of the country. An appreciation for the country's unique genomic diversity has stimulated several major legislative and structural developments in the country.
Conservation biology South Africa has a long history, starting in
Terrestrial conservation planning
Conservation planning is the identification and implementation of conservation areas using scientific methods. Since the mid-1990s, South Africa has received generous funding from international and domestic sources for regional conservation planning.
Wildlife and ecosystem management
South African wildlife management in formal protected areas was internationally admired for its effectiveness, but the model had serious limitations in the rest of the landscape. The lessons learned from scientific assessments have been fed back into the management of wild animals, e.g. in the scientific assessment of elephant management in South Africa.
Concluding comments
Jasper Rees (UWC), Brad Ripley (RU), Mary Scholes (Wits), Yashika Singh (SANBI), Trevor Sewell (UCT), Derek Watt (SASRI) and research students from the Plant Germplasm Conservation Group, UKZN. Although common to most other disciplines, the impact of the first two pressures is particularly severe in the geosciences because of their heavy reliance on fieldwork.
Geological Sciences
Research publications in the top international journals are beginning to bear fruit, with the department making significant contributions to partial crust melting research worldwide. Geochemistry (still a strong point) and hydrology were initiated with the launch of the Institute of Groundwater Studies under Frank Hodgson, marking a major milestone in the earth sciences.
Oceanography
Research carried out at UJ has set an international benchmark for the global understanding of the genesis and evolutionary significance of banded iron formations themselves and of the large iron ore deposits in the Northern Cape and for the formation of terrestrial manganese deposits, in particular the Kalahari manganese field (through the research group Palaeoproterozoic Mineralization led by Beukes). Recently, investigations are underway in the Bushveld complex, where they are trying to clarify the setting, origin and mode of formation of the enigmatic platinum deposits.
Hydrology
There are three main actors in the field of hydrology in the country (reference to hydrology carried out in geology departments is excluded as it has already been mentioned): Institute for Groundwater Studies at UFS; Institute for Water Research at RU; and the Department of Hydrology (and the Hydrological Research Unit (HRU)) at UZ. The Bachelor of Engineering (Agriculture) in Hydrology is offered by three staff (including two associate professors) in the School of Bioresource Engineering and Environmental Hydrology at UKZN.
Atmospheric Sciences
Many Wits graduates from that period are still leading scientists in the international community (e.g. the FARI 2000 experiment, and then became actively involved, including as lead authors, in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reassessment). ports (Bruce Hewitson ( UCT), Coleen Vogel (Wits), Bob Scholes (CSIR) and Clive Turner (ESKOM)).
Concluding Thoughts
- The driving role of mi- ning in medical research
- Other research initiatives
- Political transition
- Changes in research gov- ernance
- Re-shaping health and medical sciences in South
This was followed by the establishment of the South African Institute for Medical Research (SAIMR) in 1912, partly funded by the Chamber of Mines. Futile efforts to establish international links (colloquia were held with Taiwanese and Israeli scientists) and the recognition that government policies, including its influx control policy, saw the establishment of the Center for Epidemiological Research in Southern Africa. CERSA), whose main goal was to study the interaction between urbanization and health. The main goal of decades of immigration control policy has been to limit the movement of people of color from rural areas to cities; decades of forced displacement from urban areas to depleted rural labor pools and the criminalization of the rural-to-urban migration process had led to unsustainable population pressure in the Bantustans, which were established as quasi-independent mini-states. for black South Africans).
Fifteen years post-apart- heid
Significantly, the MRC's 1994/95 annual report included a separate report on health impact, which marked a dramatic shift in emphasis in the practice of health and medical sciences in South Africa, together with a concerted effort to introduce a culture of research to disadvantaged, newer higher education institutions . The first phase IIb clinical trial of South Africa's AIDS vaccine began in 2007, and the HIV Prevention Research Unit's work was recognized by its designation as a Clinical Trials Unit of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Expenditure on health and medical research in South Af-
The share of R&D expenditure in the higher education sector devoted to healthcare and medical research fell from 20.9%. Over the same period, even larger declines (more than a third) have been observed in the nonprofit sector's total healthcare and medical R&D expenditures, as well as in expenditures by socio-economic objective.
Numbers of health and medical researchers in South
However, as noted in the National Survey of Research and Experimental Development 2004/2005, the reason for this is largely methodological; many non-profit researchers were reclassified into other categories, resulting in a steep decline across all modalities. Scientific Council expenditure on research and development in health and medical research remained unchanged at 11.8% and 11.9% of total Scientific Council R&D expenditure in the 2003/4 and 2004/5 financial years.
Scientific outputs
