bbin宝盈集团

The 2025 SARAO Postgraduate and Postdoctoral Scholarship Conference (24–27 November), a vital gathering for South Africa’s rapidly advancing radio astronomy community, marked its 20th anniversary this year. Yet to understand the momentum behind the Rhodes University researchers presenting their work, one has to look back to a moment when the field itself nearly vanished from the South African landscape.

Visitors often arrive in Makhanda expecting quiet streets, heritage buildings and the measured rhythm of a small town. What they discover instead is something far more instructive: a place that lays bare the daily consequences of policy decisions, governance gaps and economic strain. It was this setting that Mr Ryan Hancocks, Director of the South African Reserve Bank Centre for Economics Journalism (SARB CEJ) at Rhodes University, believed would transform a routine training workshop into something deeper

Scientific progress rarely moves in a straight line. When global attention shifts, entire research fields can lose momentum, leaving gaps that become apparent only decades later. Diseases once thought manageable resurface with new force. Novel pathogens emerge. Health systems struggle to keep pace with technological and social change. These pressures make sustained, contextually grounded research essential, particularly in countries carrying a high burden of infectious and chronic disease. It is within this landscape that Rhodes University’s Faculty of Pharmacy convened its 2025 Research Symposium, a two-day examination of how discovery, innovation and community impact intersect.

A once-ordinary wall at Brookshaw Home’s Frail Care Centre in Makhanda has been reborn in colour and movement, thanks to a collaboration between Rhodes University’s Fine Art department, acclaimed local muralist Mook Lion, and first-year Art student Lulutho “Lulu” Madolo.

At 24, Londeka Gumede is living a dream she once feared would slip through her fingers. Today, she is a Bachelor of Commerce Honours student at Rhodes University, and her journey has been held up not only by academic ability but by unwavering determination and the quiet belief that her future is worth fighting for.

In the world of geology, pressure creates diamonds. For the Rhodes University Department of Geology, a different kind of pressure exists. It is the pressure of being the smallest department of its kind in the country. Yet, this pressure has created a legacy of excellence.

In a quiet corner of Nairobi, a young girl once sat before her father’s old computer, determined to figure out how people got inside the television. When she finally managed to play a movie with sound but no picture, she was thrilled. The screen stayed black, but it didn't matter. She had made something work. It was a spark of curiosity that would, years later, carry Dr Lexy Andati across galaxies.

Professor Warren Potts has been appointed the Oppenheimer Chair in Environmental Justice for Africa’s Coastal and Inland Fisheries. The Chair has been established through the Benjamin Raymond Oppenheimer (BRO) Trust facilitated by Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation (OGRC).

The Universe is not silent, and apart from what we observe with our eyes, much of what it says arrives as faint radio whispers that we are able to listen to if we tune into the right frequency. South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope has become one of the world’s finest listeners, revealing structures in deep space that were simply invisible to previous instruments. At the centre of this effort is the MeerKAT Galaxy Clusters Legacy Survey (MGCLS), a programme led by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO).

When a faint, fast-moving speck named 3I/ATLAS slipped into view earlier this year, it carried more than a whiff of cosmic intrigue. Only two other confirmed interstellar objects have ever wandered through our Solar System, and both left scientists with more questions than answers. The internet promptly filled the gap with theories ranging from the plausible to the eccentric. However, while the speculation churned, a quieter, methodical effort began to take shape in South Africa.

In a spectacle that underscored its technological ambitions, Rhodes University recently deployed a helicopter to transport delicate scientific instruments to its new, state-of-the-art nanotechnology facility. This operation not only highlighted the sophisticated nature of the Institute for Nanotechnology Innovation (INI) but also marked a significant expansion from its original space in the ChemPharm building due to its substantial growth.

When Rhodes University’s recent graduate Terri Harris set out to study Makhanda’s water management system, she wasn’t just conducting academic research; she was probing a question that many in the small Eastern Cape town ask daily: why isn’t the water coming?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping how the world creates, connects, and does business – and Africa’s creative industries are no exception. At the recent African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Conference, hosted by Makerere University in Uganda, artists, academics, and innovators gathered to explore how AI can unlock new possibilities for creative economies across the continent.

South Africa has a deep, untapped reservoir of young people with a natural talent for logic, patterns, and problem-solving - so-called ‘STEM brains’. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. However, for decades, many of these brilliant minds have been lost – not due to a lack of ability, but to a school system that often teaches mathematics and science in a way that is rigid, uninspiring, and, in many cases, outright intimidating.

When people think of groundbreaking global research, they often imagine vast laboratories and large-scale institutes. Yet, tucked away in the small town of Makhanda, a small team at Rhodes University is quietly reshaping global conversations about sexuality, health, and reproductive justice.

“We believe that we need a lot more scientists and a lot more people who are numerate in our society,” says Joyce Sewry, Senior Lecturer in the Chemistry Department at Rhodes University.

Rhodes University has joined forces with three very different institutions: Mangosuthu University of Technology, the University of Venda and private provider Eduvos, in a partnership now formalised under the University Capacity Development Programme (UCDP). What started as a shared conviction has become a clear, ambitious plan: to formalise community-based methods of teaching and research.

Rhodes University has marked a milestone in its research journey with the conferral of the institution’s first practice-based PhD in Fine Art, awarded to Dr Raphaela Linders.

Growing up in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, Samkelo Wiseman Junior Maisela learned early that strength is often quiet. His father passed away when he was six, and with his mother frequently away for work, much of his upbringing came from his guardian, who ran a local daycare centre. From her, Samkelo absorbed lessons of humility, service, and kindness, learning that true leadership often means showing up for others without expectation.

"Community engagement is not a once-off act, not charity, but a way of life." With these closing words, Vice-Chancellor Professor Sizwe Mabizela captured the spirit of Rhodes University's 14th Annual Community Engagement (RUCE) Awards. The ceremony was not simply an evening of recognition but a powerful reminder that Rhodes University belongs to Makhanda and that its strength comes from walking alongside communities to bring lasting change.