Inaugural Annual Research Day at Monash South Africa
8 November 2011
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| From the left: Prof Bimo Nkata; Ass Prof Dina Burger, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research; Prof Colleen Lewis, Head of the School of Social Science; Dr Anna-Mart van Wyk and Dr Adele Berndt. |
As part of the Monash South Africa’s 10th Anniversary celebrations, the Research Directorate hosted its first Research Day on Friday 28 October 2011. The theme of this inaugural event was ‘Celebrating and Showcasing our Research Excellence’. It was attended by academic staff, invited guests and postgraduate students studying towards honours degrees and higher degrees by research.
Prof Hamanth Kasan from Rand Water delivered the opening keynote address entitled: ‘Are you smart enough to succeed’, in which he challenged some of the ideas around why many researchers feel trapped and don’t progress well in terms of furthering their studies through research and publications.
As a co-author of the book The Gift, Prof Kasan aimed to motivate, particularly early career researchers, to plan their careers around desire, determination and commitment. He emphasised that: “What we see depends mainly on what we are looking for”.
He encouraged all academic staff to develop their competencies for high performance, to focus on and develop their strengths and to implement and assess a plan for their lives.
Academic staff from all four schools at Monash South Africa participated in the Research Day and gave presentations on their research projects and activities.
A group of enthusiastic honours students from the School of IT showed off their final research projects and five higher degree by research students displayed posters about their research. Three independent judges awarded the prize for the best poster to Ms Kundai Chihambakwe for her poster entitled ‘The 19th Watering Hole: The Case of Water Policy and Governance in Golf Course Water Conservation’.
Associate Prof Dina Burger, Pro Vice-Chancellor: Research at Monash South Africa said: “The day was marked by enthusiastic sharing of intellectual ideas. We look forward to it becoming an annual event which we hope will motivate staff and students to achieve in terms of their research aspirations. This will, in turn, serve to advance the research profile and standing of our campus.”
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| From the left: Dr Ilse Niemann-Struweg, Head of School of Business and Economics; Prof Hamanth Kasan, General Manager, Rand Water; Prof Anton du Toit, Head of Accounting, School of Business and Economics and Dr Adele Berndt, MC at the event. | From the left: Presenters from the MSA Foundation Programme: Troy Campbell, Laurence Shee, Debbie Lees (Head) and Frikkie Korf. | Paul Platinga and Neil Manson presenters from the MSA School of IT. |
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