Acclaimed academics celebrated

Academic agency was once again celebrated on Wednesday, 17 September, as the 2025 College of Fellows took centre stage at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Three College of Fellows’ Young Researcher Award recipients for 2025 were also recognised.

The individuals are nominated for the prestigious fellowship based on their significant contributions to research in their respective fields. Induction into the UCT College of Fellows is one of the highest accolades an academic staff member can receive.

The three College of Fellows for 2025 are:

• Professor Jeff Murugan – the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
• Professor Jaco Barnard-Naudé – Director: Research, Faculty of Law
• Professor Andy Buffler – the Department of Physics.

The three young researchers recognised are:

• Dr Simon Mendelsohn – the Department of Pathology
• Professor Malebogo Ngoepe – the Department of Mechanical Engineering
• Dr Emily Garman – the Department of Psychiatry.

The evening got off to a vibrant start. Acting deputy vice-chancellor (DVC) for Research and Internationalisation, Professor Murugan, hosted the evening, all the while introducing himself to accept his award, with him invoking a quote by Elon Musk: “I am wearing so many hats; even my hat has a hat.”

“In many ways, my scholarly work, like a beagle, is about curiosity and some confusion.”

For their acceptance speeches, the three College of Fellows were given an unorthodox task: describe your scholarly and life journey, in an entertaining manner, as a garden or a sporting discipline, or as a well-known song, in not more than three to five minutes.

Murugan used climbing to share his lessons, and there is half a dozen of them. “The first lesson is gravity matters. The second is that everyone needs a good belayer. And it’s more than just a person holding the other end of the rope – it’s the person who tells you where the route is going and encourages you,” he said.

Home institution

“Much of science is about connecting dots.” That is lesson three. “The journey is important, and the way a climb works is you focus on little sections at a time to get to the top.” Lesson four is to take the lead when you can. “I like leading, and that’s because I feel like I do silly things when I second, which I wouldn’t do if I was leading.” The penultimate lesson is about balance, and, finally, when in doubt, run it out: “Climbing has taught me about taking calculated risks, but risks nonetheless,” he said.

Professor Buffler went left field with his acceptance, using a beagle as a metaphor to describe his scholarly work. He powered images on the projector with different reactions of his beagles to tell a story which had the audience laughing. “In many ways, my scholarly work, like a beagle, is about curiosity and some confusion. It also becomes very exhausting, and there’s a lot of travelling involved. However, as we all know, home is best. We travel as scholars and then return, and we recognise that UCT is the best place to operate from.”

He added: “In the end, loyalty to UCT is what matters and that’s what unifies us as a community and we recognise that with all the complexities around our lives, we come back here. So, thank you for your confidence in me. I am highly grateful for this award, and I thank the university for the life it has given me.”

Professor Ngoepe called it an honour to receive her award. “It’s my home institution and the road of research has not always proven easy. As researchers, we try and plot impact statements ahead of time, but sometimes our work takes on a life of its own where we have impact in areas we never thought of.”

Notable contributions include her work on thrombosis modelling, where she has contributed to the development of new methodologies for studying this ailment under pathological conditions, including COVID-19.

“I’ve remained interested [in research] throughout time. The big thing is about having the freedom to follow the curiosity that the science reveals.”

Since 2017, Dr Mendelsohn has contributed as an investigator to more than 30 tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic, therapeutic and vaccine trials. “It’s very special to be recognised like this,” he said. “Recognition is important to encourage the next generation of researchers and to understand what’s possible.”

He has established himself as an international expert in the host blood transcriptomic response to TB; transcriptomic biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment response; and non-sputum diagnostics for early and asymptomatic TB.

In his welcome address, Vice-Chancellor Professor Mosa Moshabela said celebrating academics in this way was important. “We live in a time where there are constant attacks on universities, academia and science, and we have to work even harder to protect the integrity of excellence.”

*Professor Barnard-Naudé and Dr Garman were unable to attend the event.