Four UCT researchers were honoured at the annual NSTF-South32 Awards which took place recently. The awards, known in the South African research community as the ‘Oscars of Science’, recognise and reward excellence in science, engineering and technology, and innovation in South Africa. Dr Robyn Pickering, from the Department of Geological Sciences was one of the recipients
Professor Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan, from the Department of Biological Sciences, has just had a paper published in Plos One, detailing how the long- necked dinosaurs grew so large. These findings are the result of an Argentinian-South African collaboration.
Associate Professor Marcello Vichi, from the Department of Oceanography, will be the Chief Scientist on a cruise to the marginal ice zone of Antarctica, which leaves this week. He and his students are the sea ice team that is setting off on an expedition to measure the marginal ice zone in the Southern Ocean.
Anyone who has spent a bit of time at UCT will know about the (in)famous Red-winged Starlings on campus.
These birds have developed a reputation at the university for being sly lunch thieves – many students can tell stories about starlings swooping past their heads on Jammie plaza in pursuit of a sandwich or some other treat. The FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology is now doing research on our favourite campus mascots, looking at how these city-slicking birds cope with highly variable food quality and quantity in urban environments.
Some might say that the buzzword for UCT during 2016 was ‘transformation’. The head of the Department of Oceanography, Professor Isabelle Ansorge, heard the call to action and answered with the creation and launch of SEAmester - South Africa's first floating university classroom.
A partnership between the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch Municipality and the Western Cape government is turning an abandoned water treatment facility in Franschhoek into a centre for water reuse research and innovation. The goal of The Water Hub, as the project has been named, is to demonstrate how effectively natural water systems can clean storm water runoff. Dr Kevin Winter from Environmental & Geographical Science is Research Director of the Water Hub.
Over 80 paddlers joined the Peninsula Paddle last Sunday to celebrate the recent rainfall and refreshment that this brought to the dire state of Cape Town’s waterways. Dr Kevin Winter, from the Department of Environmental & Geographical Science, describes the event.
The Science Faculty hosted their annual 'Winter School' excursion for first year students, taking them on a trip to Sutherland, to expose them to cutting edge science; to prove them with opportunities to explore how scientists think and what they do and to encourage the students to examine their own role as potential scientists.
The World Heritage Site of Great Zimbabwe – one of the most iconic and largest archaeological settlements in Africa – offers more than just an interesting insight into how pre-colonial African states and societies functioned. It also provides food for thought on sustainable development in Africa.
Recent findings by a team of researchers, led by Associate Professor Shadreck Chirikure of the Department of Archaeology published in the prestigious PLOS ONE journal, explain how the inhabitants of Great Zimbabwe lived sustainably in the region without negative consequences for the environment.
Miengah Abrahams, an MSc student in the Department of Geological Sciences, together with Dr Emese Bordy, also from the Department of Geological Sciences, recently published in an international journal of paleobiology, on dinosaur trackways in Lesotho, giving a shapshot into life some 200 million years ago.
How and to what extend did climate change in the past impact early humans and how did early humans adapt to new environments? The North Kuruman Project, led by Dr Jayne Wilkins and Dr Benjamin Schoville, from the Department of Archaeology, strives to address these questions.
Researchers, including Dr Tess Gridley from the Department of Statistical Sciences, at UCT, have used state-of-the-art software to distinguish dolphin calls so clearly that particular species could be identified based solely on their whistles.