Alumni in the spotlight July 2022
- Wits Alumni Relations
Catch up on a wrap of Witsie awards, appointments and newsmakers from the past month.
Awards
Two Witsies were mentioned in Harvard Public Health magazine’s top 25 public health leaders in Africa. These "standout voices“ include scientists, public health advocates and policy experts. They are: Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim (BSc Hons 1984), the associate scientific director at Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa and Professor Helen Rees, director of the Reproductive Health and HIV Institute at Wits. Professor Rees also received an honorary degree from the University of London.
The Old Johannian Association and St John’s College announced the recipients of the 2022 Golden Eagle Award in recognition and celebration of the extraordinary impact they have made in South Africa and internationally. All three recipients are Wits graduates: Professor Paul Fatti (BSc 1965, BSc Hons 1967, MSc 1968, PhD 1970), the late Dr Carl Fatti (MBBCh 1984) and Professor William Runciman (BSc 1966, MBBCh 1969).
Three Wits alumni Professor Shabir Madhi (MBBCh 1990, MMed 1999, PhD 2004), Dr Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela (MM2015) and Professor Simon Connell (BSc 1982, BSc Hons 1985, PhD 1988) were announced as winners in their categories at the 24th NSTF-South32 Awards held on 21 July 2022. The annual awards ceremony, widely regarded as the “Science Oscars”, recognises excellence and outstanding contributions to science, engineering and technology and innovation in South Africa. They are the largest and most sought-after national awards of their kind in the country.
David Hadfield (Construction Management 1980) was honoured with an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for services to sport. Hadfield has been the President of the Boccia International Sports Federation since 2013. Boccia has been recognised as one of the fastest growing Paralympic sports worldwide with the UK becoming one of the global leaders at the sport under his presidency.
Appointments
Thembelihle Dlamini (BCom 2017, BCom Hons 2022) has been appointed as head of functions and events at Wits.
Garth Neilson (BCom 1992, PDipEd 1992) has been appointed as new head of high school at HeronBridge College Fourways.
(PGDip Bus Ad 2021) was appointed as chief operations officer of the Market Theatre Foundation. She joins another Wits graduate Tshiamo Mokgadi (BA DA 2006), who is the foundation’s chief executive officer.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa announced that Dr Charley Lewis (MCom 2001, PhD 2019) has been appointed as acting chairperson of the regulatory authority until April next year.
South African Institute for Civil Engineering appointed Innocentia Mahlangu (BSc Eng 2011, MSc Eng 2018) as a new Fellow. She is an internationally recognised professional project manager and senior civil engineer. In her current role at Hatch, she is a specialist project manager, overseeing projects in mining, metals and infrastructure.
The Press Council of South Africa appointed Herman Scholz (LLM 2016) as the Press Ombud. He is an advocate with a general litigation practice and has a special interest in media and censorship law.
Professor Thuli Madonsela (LLB 1991, LLD honoris causa 2017) has been appointed chair of the management board of the Cities Alliance. This is a global partnership hosted by the United Nations for Project Services to fight urban poverty and support cities to deliver sustainable development.
Dr Brett Kaplan (MBBCh 1997, MBA 2003) was appointed to the board of directors of Myeloid Therapeutics, a clinical stage mRNA-immunotherapy company. Dr Kaplan currently serves as the chief financial and corporate development officer of Chroma Medicine Inc.
Professor Bridget Carragher (BSc 1978, BSc Hons 1979, MSc 1982) has been appointed to founding technical director of the Chan Zuckerberg Institute for Advanced Biological Imaging. This is a new research centre “where disciplines will come together to develop revolutionary new imaging hardware and software tools to provide comprehensive views of biological systems in their native context.” Professor Carragher is a physicist specialising in electron microscopy and is an adjunct professor at Columbia University. Earlier in February this year she received the 2022 Innovation Award from the Biophysical Society for the development of inkjet deposition and vitrification technology for cryo-EM. She first developed a prototype robotic tool, called Spotiton, which integrates piezo-electric inkjet dispensers with optical cameras for depositing picoliter amounts of sample onto grids. This was a completely novel method for TEM specimen preparation that provided a proof-of-concept that small volume dispensing is feasible and opened the door for similar technologies. Spotiton has enabled solving many structures that were intractable by other means.
Mergence Investment Managers has appointed Sholto Dolamo (MSc 2002) as its managing director. He has over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry and his focus is on strategic leadership, product innovation and research across all asset classes in public and private markets. Dolamo previously worked at the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), including as acting chief investment officer, executive head of research of project development, and acting GM of listed equities.
Alicia Thompson (BA 1994) New Chairperson of the iconic Rand Club. She is the first Black person and second woman to hold the position.
Newsmakers
In a recent study, researcher and recipient of the 2020 FLAIR research fellowship Dr Dalia Saad (MSc 2011, PhD 2013), found that fish in the Vaal River are full of microplastics. “This isn’t just potentially bad news for people’s health; it also has huge economic implications because the Vaal and similar water bodies are used for agriculture, breeding livestock and recreation,” she writes.
Darryl Epstein (BSc Eng 2011), founder and managing director of Delta Scan, a company specialising in the digitisation and inspection of infrastructure using high-tech solutions such as drones, robots, and artificial intelligence, used his expertise to help locate the remains of six-year-old Khayalethu Magadla who fell into a sewer manhole in Soweto.
Actress Thembisa Mdoda-Nxumalo (BA DA 2009) chatted about her illness for over a year with COVID-19.
Dr Laura Pereira (BSc 2006, BSc Hons 2007) wrote why South Africa needs to invigorate the use of sorghum as a key food source.
Dr Neil Stacey (BSc Eng 2009, PhD 2016) wrote about the coming water crisis and what South African engineers are doing to stem it.
Award winning filmmaker Sihle Hlophe (BADA 2009) was in discussion about her latest film Lobola: A Bride’s True Price? at the 24th Encounters Film Festival 2022. “In South Africa, where communities have different customs and traditions, growing as a society also means acknowledging the ways we need to change, the ways we need to acknowledge women’s oppression and do better for the sake of our future generations. But my message is this: “Women can’t be bought.” The film was runner up for the Adiaha Award for best documentary by an African woman. She was also the winner of the Best Documentary Award at the Cameroon Film Festival in 2021 for “Lindela Under Lockdown" (2020).