COVID-19 dashboard ‘by and for South Africans’

In October, Dr Rebecca Hodes won UCT’s Social Responsiveness Award for a unique, collaborative study on youth vertically infected with HIV.

UCT marked a historic moment on its journey of transformation when it launched the Khoi and San Centre on 21 September.

In September, over 30 members of the UCT community were honoured in the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans list.

UCT is preparing to become a net-zero-water campus by 2050, with a strategy developed in the Office of the Vice Chancellor’s Environmental Sustainability Directorate.

In August, UCT’s new 500-bed Avenue Road Residence was the first SA student housing development to be awarded a Green Star rating from the Green Building Council South Africa.

In August, the award recognised Muller’s groundbreaking work in establishing transplantation between HIV-positive donors and HIV-positive recipients in South Africa and beyond.

In August, the UCT's emergency medicine specialists set up a system to cope with the wave of COVID-19 patients at the Mitchells Plain District Hospital and the Heideveld Emergency Centre.

In August, educator-performer and co-head of UCT’s sociology department, Associate Professor Amrita Pande, was one of four recipients of the 2019 Distinguished Teacher Award.

In August, Hebert Gumbi, an accounting teacher at Mathunjwa High School in Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal, was the “proud” recipient of the 2020 Stella Clark Teachers’ Award.

In July, UCT alumnus Jock Currie referred to his PhD project to recreate a 111-year-old demersal fisheries survey as “an ambitious research project”.

In July, UCT’s Dr Abhaya Karki and Dr Nabeela Amien spoke about their experience of being part of a team that would set up a field hospital from scratch.

In June, the UCT Choir’s rendition of the traditional Zulu hymn “Thuma Mina” paid tribute to all frontline workers at the coalface of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In June, UCT News wrote about Dr Colleen O’Ryan embarking on a project to research genes associated with autism spectrum disorder – that led her right back to UCT.

In June, the HIATUS study, being launched by UCT’s Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa, was set to investigate the interaction between pandemics in the South African context.

In May, UCT student Ilyaas Amien’s free online maths tutoring service, Tutonic, was helping high school students around the country access help and guidance from student tutors.

In May, four young UCT researchers were selected as 2020 Future Leaders – African Independent Research Fellows, recognising them as potential future leaders in their fields.

In April, UCT electrical engineering student Rowyn Naidoo was close to finalising an affordable, smart UVC light system that disinfects surfaces, the air and large rooms – and even face masks.

In April, UCT’s Professor Kelly Chibale was chosen as one of the world’s top 60 inspirational leaders in the pharmaceutical industry.

In April, UCT doctoral candidate Leen Remmelzwaal built COVID-19 Stats SA to keep data on the pandemic clear and unbiased for all South Africans.

From a small Kenyan village to a degree cum laude at UCT, graduate Willie Macharia proved that resistance is no match for resilience.

In April 2020, women took four of the five top spots in the final-year civil engineering class, a salute to excellence and a spur to equality.

In March 2020, over 100 UCT Faculty of Health Sciences students volunteered to staff the COVID-19 hotline at Tygerberg Hospital’s Disaster Management Centre.

The Mamokgethi Phakeng Scholarship was launched in 2020 to support young black women in STEM fields of study at UCT.