Royal Society of SA awards Witsies medals, fellowships

18 November 2024 - Wits University

Professor Sally Archibald receives the 2025 John F.W. Herschel Medal and Doctors Mitchell Cox and Simone Richardson are 2025 Meiring Naudé medallists.

Furthermore, the Royal Society of South Africa (RSSAf) named Professors Jennifer Botha (Evolutionary Studies Institute), Warren Maroun (Accountancy), Marietjie Venter (Infectious Diseases - IDORI), and Angela Woodiwiss (Physiology) as fellows in 2024.

The RSSAf promotes science and recognises excellence in research and scholarship. The Society is "the Republic’s premier multi-disciplinary scientific organisation" and it aims to foster and advance pure and applied science. 

The John F.W. Herschel Medal is the senior medal of the RSSAf. It is awarded to those who are outstanding in either a field of research that straddles disciplines or in more than one unrelated field.

The Meiring Naudé Medal is the RSSAf’s junior medal, which recognises an early career scientist who has already made a mark in their field and is poised to become a scientific leader.

This is the third year running that Wits researchers have won these medals. Shabir Madhi, Professor of Vaccinology, was awarded the senior medal in 2024, while physicist Dr Isaac Nape was named as the 2024 Meiring Naudé medallist. Professor Jennifer Fitchett, a biometeorologist, was the Meiring Naudé medallist in 2023.

The names of the 2025 medallists were officially recorded at the Ordinary Meeting of the Society (and the 2024 fellows inducted) at a luncheon held at the Future Africa Campus, University of Pretoria, on 26 October.

The medals and certificates will be conferred at the Society's Annual Dinner and Awards Event to be held in September/October 2025.

Igniting understanding of grassland ecosystems

The 2025 John F.W. Herschel medallist, Professor Sally Archibald, FRSSAf, won for her outstanding contributions in evolutionary biology, functional ecology, fire ecology, climate science, and ecosystem management, which have profoundly enhanced our understanding of grassland ecosystems and their complexities. 

Adjudicators recognised Archibald’s ‘major contribution to the academic assessment and theory of the interactions between fire, drought and grazing ecology’ noting her ‘use of satellite data and the analysis of ecosystem dynamics’. 

By integrating insights from various disciplines, her research has been crucial in tackling intricate ecological issues and developing effective conservation and management strategies. 

Archibald’s notable achievements and groundbreaking ideas have garnered esteemed grants and leadership positions, amplifying her impact on global biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation efforts.

As a dedicated mentor and educator, she remains a source of inspiration and guidance for the next generation of scientists, continually advancing knowledge within her field. 

The bright spark advancing long-range wireless optical communication 

Joint winner of the 2025 Meiring Naudé Medal, Dr Mitchell Cox has ‘made a major contribution to the field of Electrical and Information Engineering and Structured Laser Light Photonics’ say the adjudicators. 

Not only has Cox published in very high impact factor journals, but articles that cited his work have been published by world leaders’. Adjudicators also lauded his ‘appointment as an associate editor of a journal at such an early stage of [his] career and [his] position as an Optica Society Ambassador.

His research focuses on advancing long-range wireless optical communication to help connect underserved communities. When laser beams travel through the atmosphere, from the perspective of the receiver, they twinkle like stars in the night sky, making it challenging to transport information reliably. 

To address this, Cox has explored using complex shapes of light that can better withstand atmospheric disturbances. Recently, he discovered that by embracing these distortions instead of trying to minimise them, he could potentially use similar phenomena to build all-optical neural networks. Such networks would consume less energy than traditional computational neural networks and operate at the speed of light. 
 
Cox says, “Receiving the Meiring Naudé Medal from the Royal Society of South Africa is an honour and I am deeply grateful to the mentors, students, and collaborators who have shaped my path and approach along the way. I look forward to making more contributions in future, and I hope some will make a lasting impact!”

The vaccine vanguard against viruses

Joint winner of the 2025 Meiring Naudé Medal, Simone Richardson is a Senior Research Scientist and joint staff at Wits University and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. 

Her research primarily focuses on the role of cytotoxic antibodies in vaccination and their functions beyond simply neutralizing viral infections. 

She studies various viruses including HIV, SARS-CoV-2, Cytomegalovirus, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, and Influenza, and she has multidisciplinary expertise covering not only immunology and virology, but also vaccine design. 

Her research aims to engineer antibodies with enhanced capabilities for passive immunization and to understand how HIV co-infection affects immune responses, especially in the context of viruses that disproportionately affect children and infants. 

“It is a great honour for my research to be recognised with the award of the Meiring Naudé Medal. This acknowledgment not only reflects my contributions but also emphasises the critical role of vaccine design in addressing the significant challenges humanity faces in our ever-evolving world,” says Richardson.

Royal Society of SA crowns 2024 cohort of Fellows

The following Wits researchers were amongst those inducted as fellows of the RSSAf in 2024:

• Professor Jennifer Botha, Director of GENUS Palaeosciences at Wits, for her groundbreaking research on ancient mass extinctions and the adaptive strategies of extinct vertebrates. This work is recognised globally for its relevance in palaeosciences and modern conservation.
• Warren Maroun is a Professor of Accounting and Auditing in the Wits Margo Steele School of Accountancy at Wits. His research, teaching and consulting focuses on financial accounting, assurance, corporate governance, integrated reporting and sustainability reporting. He is the co-chair of the Centre for Critical Accounting and Auditing Research (based at Wits) and a member of the Integrated Reporting Committee of South Africa’s Working Group.
• Distinguished Professor Marietjie Venter is Chair: Emerging Viral Threats, One Health Surveillance and Vaccines, in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits University. She is an expert in zoonotic, arbo- and respiratory viruses and One Health. She is a Distinguished Professor at Wits’ Infectious Diseases and Oncology Research Institute (IDORI) and President-Elect (Africa) of the World Society for Virology.
• Angela Woodiwiss is a Personal Professor in the Wits School of Physiology and the Director of the Cardiovascular Pathophysiology and Genomic Research Unit (CPGRU). She is an internationally recognised researcher whose current research interests include the role of aortic dysfunction as a cause of premature cardiovascular events; the best approaches to risk prediction; and the impact of obesity and HIV on the cardiovascular system.