Capacity Building

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The Human Perspective 

Capacity Building has been at the forefront of Inkaba yeAfrica, ever since the project’s inception in 2003.

Towards the end of Phase I in 2007,  discussions at a high political level has involved Minister Mosibudi Mangena, DST (Department of Science and Technology) from South Africa during his visit to GFZ-Potsdam in August 2007).  In September 2007,  Inkaba's successful co-operation and training programmes topped the agenda at the German-African Stipend Exchange meeting in Potsdam, an initiative of the German President, followed by the Phase I progress discussions at DST (Department of Science and Technology) in Pretoria, South Africa in October 2007.

  

Formal Training of South African / German Students

A core vision of Inkaba yeAfrica is to nurture a new generation of top-qualified postgraduates and postdoctoral researchers with multicultural backgrounds, who can explore ways of integrating formerly segregated geosciences, economic and social needs of Africa.

For South African students, projects are streamlined under multi-supervision mentorship in South Africa and during extended research visits in Germany.

German students either participate in field experiments in South Africa, and/or conduct field work for their MSc. theses, whilst others work on higher degrees in Germany on their data obtained in South Africa.

Field work across the Cape Mountains and training at the GFZ Potsdam

Many German and South African undergraduate students have participated together in one or more Inkaba yeAfrica field experiments in South Africa.

From 2005 onwards, six (6) South African graduate students have completed extended research visits at the GFZ for specialised training. These training periods are intensive and intended to enhance technical and analytical skills not available in South Africa. For example, one student worked successfully for eight (8) months at GFZ to analyse and interpret the newly acquired high resolution seismic reflection data across the Karoo Basin, on which she completed her MSc that included two (2) publications in a peer reviewed international journal, one as the leading author. She will now continue in the Inkaba yeAfrica Phase II program as a PhD student.

Similarly three (3) black students completed 3 - 6 months training at GFZ on 3-D petroleum system modelling on their own data acquired through the South African Petroleum Agency. The first South African PhD student is now spending a full year at GFZ conducting analytical experiments, whilst

 the first South African postdoctoral researcher continues with a second year in the Inkaba yeAfrica programme at GFZ after completing two field experiments with the GFZ team in South Africa.

In addition, some ten (10) honours students have completed their thesis work in South Africa on Inkaba yeAfrica topics, and some are extending these into MSc projects.

Many of the students have participated actively in the annual Inkaba yeAfrica workshops, and at the last workshop, in KwaZuluNatal, an entire day was devoted to technical talks by young Inkaba yeAfrica research students only. This has proved to be a successful formula to engage with their works and needs. We will continue with this strategy at the  workshops to follow.

 

South African and German students and staff engaged in the Inkaba yeAfrica seismic reflection and magnetotelluric experiments in the Karoo

The total number of South African students that have completed their work stands at just over twenty (20), an excellent achievement considering the many mitigating factors we confronted and from which we have learned important lessons. We are confident that we can use this to build a larger, robust and sustainable group of young scientists during Phase II.

For example, during a mid-2007 short course on basin analysis taught at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), two (2) GFZ-postgraduates were able to successfully attract a large number of potential MSc-students. This underscores the need for more direct interactions beyond mere data collecting and research work. We intend therefore to run several such small student-friendly workshops on an annual basis.

Commitment to Capacity Building

Inkaba yeAfrica projects are firmly committed to capacity building in South Africa.  Opportunities for undergraduates and graduates within specific research projects of Inkaba yeAfrica are listed in the individual research proposals. The total number of studentships in these projects stands at approximately one hundred (100).

Specially tailored development and capacity building projects designed to focus on an accelerated path for students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds are built specifically into some of the research proposals.

In addition, more centralised capacity building and outreach programmes in South Africa will be coordinated through the Inkaba yeAfrica office and with the AEON initiative.

South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI)

The South African Research Chairs Initiative of the NRF will create 15 new Research Chairs in 2009 towards the ultimate goal of 210 Chairs by 2010.

The Initiative is a strategically focused knowledge and human resource intervention that has five interrelated objectives:

  • TO increase the number of world class researchers in South Africa

  • TO retain and/or attract back qualified research scientists to the Higher Education sector and thereby:
    TO help reverse the systemic decline in research outputs, focus and capacity at publicly funded higher education institutions (HEIs), Science Councils and other research institutions
    TO strengthen and improve the capacity of HEIs, Science Councils, Musea and other research institutions (e.g., University linked Teaching Hospitals) to generate and apply new knowledge

  • TO stimulate strategic research across the knowledge spectrum and thereby increase the level of excellence in research areas of national and international importance

  • TO create research career pathways for highly skilled, high quality young and mid-career researchers that effectively addresses historical racial, gender and age imbalances

  • TO improve and accelerate the training of highly qualified personnel through research.

The AIM of the Initiative is to make South Africa competitive in the international knowledge economy based on its existing and potential strengths.

NRF drive to increase PhD qualifications in SA

The country's key public entity responsible for supporting the development of human resource capacity and knowledge generation, the National Research Foundation (NRF), has embarked on a nationwide initiative to increase the number of PhD graduates in South Africa.                  To find out more:  http://www.nrf.ac.za/  

2010 SA PhD Project Conference (3rd)

The NRF's 2010 SA PhD Project Conference was held for the 3rd consecutive year from 5 - 7 May 2010 at the Emperor's Palace, south from OR Tambo Airport.  In addition to plenary sessions, the conference programme included the conference dinner, and the PhD Project Fair at which universities, research institutions, facilities, companies and funding agencies could market their training, funding and employment opportunities.  (Note complete story below : Cultivating PhDs for Global Competitiveness in SA)

  

Inkaba yeAfrica's exhibition at the 2010 SA PhD Project Conference

 Donna Boyd, MSc (UCT) at AAPG, New Orleans                                            - Inkaba Sub-project 3.1a

 

Seen here is Donna Boyd (UCT), who has nearly finished her MSc after almost a year at GFZ-Potsdam, and, who presented an Inkaba poster (tryptic) at this prestigous convention

The 2010 AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologists) Annual Convention and Exhibition was held in New Orleans, Louisiana from 11-14 April 2010.  Inkaba yeAfrica student, Donna Boyd (UCT), who has nearly finished her MSc after almost a year at GFZ-Potsdam, presented her tryptic poster at this prestigious convention.

Thousands of  professionals from around the globe assembled to share the latest ideas and scientific advances related to geological and  geophysical aspects of the petroleum industry.



There were over 200+ exhibitors, where you find the latest technologies and more. Spread over the three and a half days, 8 (eight) concurrent oral sessions were presented.  Nearly over 450 individual oral presentations and over 500 poster presentations and displays, were presented. Said Donna:  "It is impossible to see and hear everything you like, considering these numbers and this convention, simultaneously renders opportunities to learn, network and, most importantly, to present your research to other professionals."

Donna was co-supervised by Zahie Anka, Rolando Di Primio, Maarten de Wit and Jeff Aldrich within Inkaba :Living Africa's Sub-Project 3.1a  - Ecosystems and Climate change Natural gas generation, migration and sequestration -  implications for greenhouse gas budgets on continental slopes, South Africa.  Her poster's running title:  Seismic Interpretation, Distribution and Numerical Modeling of Natural Gas Leakage on Block 2 of the Orange Base, Offshore South Africa.

(Announcements for the winning student presentations hasn't been made as yet.  This is the same convention where our Inkaba MSc student, Lihle Madyibi, had the Best International Student Paper during 2008 - note his story further down).

Inkaba yeAfrica : Phase II (2009 -  2013)

New SA Students : 2009

With the DST/NRF funding for South African participants in Inkaba yeAfrica Phase II (2009 – 2013)  finalized, Inkaba saw its first official student intake of 38 up to end August 2009.  A complete list of new Hons, MSc and PhD students can be viewed under Resources > Capacity Building.

Without DST and NRF's support this would never have realised. Inkaba's heartfelt appreciation and gratitude yet again towards our DST and NRF counterparts in South Africa.

Hereby a complete list of the new students for 2009:

UCT (13) :  
Backeberg, Nils  (MSc)  *
Boyd, Donna  (MSc)
Decker, John  (PhD)
Flugel, Tyrel  (MSc)
Linol, Bastien  (PhD)  *
MaClennan, Scott  (MSc)
Mielke, Christian  (PhD)  *
Mojaki, Teboho  (BSc Hons)
Moodley, Lynessa  (BSc Hons)
Moore, Shaun
Ngwagwe, Motshidisi  (BSc Hons)
Ntholi, Thakane  (BSc Hons)
Van Niekerk, Melissa  (BSc Hons)

 
UFS (13) :
Clark, John  (BSc Hons)
 
Denge, Elelwani  (BSc Hons)
Erwee, Mariette  (MSc)
Kuenene, Bataung  (PhD)
Lekgetho, Thelma  (MSc)
Palo, M  (BSc Hons)
Madala, Fulufhelo  (BSc Hons)
MacDonald, Niquita  (BSc Hons)
Maluma, Murendeni  (BSc Hons)
Mphatse, Cassius  (BSc Hons)  *
Nape, Moses  (MSc)
Odendaal, Catherine  (BSc Hons)
Wessels, Lize

NMMU (3) :
Moodley, Jason Anthony  (BSc Hons)
Olivier, Wernich  (MSc)
Scharf, Taryn Estelle  (BSc Hons)

UWC (9) :
Arnold, Andy  (MSc)
Adekola, Solomon  (PhD)
Ferreira, Janine  (MSc)
Lombard, Donovan  (MSc)
Mowzer, Zainab  (MSc)
Ndata, Zamazangwa  (BSc Hons)
Nformi, Emmanuel   (MSc)
Schalkwyk, Xavier  (MSc)
Van Eeden, Miles  (MSc)

PhD : 5  /  MSc : 15  /  BSc Hons : 18 - TOTAL new 2009 student intake:  38

*  Received Awards for Best Student Presentations at 6th Inkaba Workshop in Swaziland, September 2009


 

 

 

ANSA LINDEQUE EXCELS

Congratulations to Ansa Lindeque, who graduated with a distinction at UCT in June 2009. Her MSc. thesis ‘Deep Crustal Seismic Profile across the Southern Karoo Basin South Africa’, was a successful outcome of the first  Inkaba yeAfrica  collaborative experiments across the Karoo basin. 

Ansa’s thesis presents data-acquisition, -processing and -interpretations of a ~100 km near vertical reflection (NVR) seismic line across the southern Karoo Basin, South Africa that was shot in late 2005. The line forms a terrestrial part of the longer (~1000 km) Agulhas-Karoo offshore-onshore transect to study the evolution of the ocean continent boundary across the southern margin of Africa.

She started her project at UCT in mid-2005 when the on-shore/off-shore amphibian seismic line was being planned for the Inkaba yeAfrica program, and then acted as a field assistant to the GFZ-Potsdam MT and seismic crew during the experiments. In this capacity Ansa organized the logistic support and in particular handled the negotiations with local farmers for access to their land for detonations. She then coordinated the drilling and assisted in data acquisition processes.

Subsequently she spend 1 year at GFZ-Potsdam, Germany, processing the data and analyzing it, under supervision of several people in the local seismic group at GFZ (under leadership of M Weber). Back in Cape Town, Ansa held a full-time job at the Council for Geoscience and worked on completing the thesis on a part-time basis.

The thesis describes in detail the data acquisition parameters. She describes the data processing, flow and software, and summarizes the outcome of her data interpretation. The results are presented in an integrated format using all other available geophysics (including seismic tomography [obtained from the longer amphibian section shot at the same time], receiver function analyses [obtained earlier during teleseismic experiments in 2002], MT work along the same line as the seismic survey), and the geology of the region (including data from two deep drill holes nearby). Her analyses required a substantial reassessment of our understanding of the southern continental margin of Africa. 

‘Ms. A. Lindeque’s MS thesis is one of the most comprehensive, interdisciplinary treatments of geophysical data associated with a deep seismic transect that I have yet read. I not only support the awarding of this degree, but believe it merits distinction.’ (External examiner, Cornell University, USA)

 

‘The dissertation……is ‘excellent’; it is definitely worthy of ‘distinction’. The thesis is exceptionally comprehensive, more so than almost all M.Sc. thesis that I have seen’ (External examiner University of British Columbia, Canada)’

 JOB / STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES

Job Vacancies : Space Geodesy, HartRAO (South Africa)

(Note:  The Science > Phase II > Heart of Africa > Subproject 1.1)

The development of the Lunar Laser Ranger (LLR) will be based partially on post-graduate student projects. Several projects are available for suitably qualified applicants, eg.

  1. LLR Telescope control and pointing (digital control systems, software development, hardware interfacing, pointing model and system characterisation)   

  2. LLR Timing subsystem development (software development, hardware interfacing, subsystem slaving, time synchronisation, GPS control of Cesium clock, time distribution amplifiers, time system characterisation and monitoring)
  3. LLR subsystem integration (digital control systems, control computer interfacing, control computer software, realtime components, automated housekeeping scripts)
  4. Additional LLR subsystem component development/integration
    • LASER
    • detection
    • filtering (spectral, temporal, spatial, amplitude)
    • pulse conditioning
    • event timing
    • telescope (optics and mount)

  5. Documentation and design library

  6. Analysis software and scientific products

Students who are interested should have a background in subjects such as physics, electronics, mathematics, computer science, photonics, optics, astronomy, geodesy, digital control systems, hardware architectures, software development and related fields.

Enquiries should be directed to the Project Leader : Prof. Ludwig Combrinck, ludwig@hartrao.ac.za

Prof. Combrinck heads the Space Geodesy Programme at HartRAO, which is a national facility of the NRF (National Research Foundation), AND Inkaba yeAfrica Heart of Africa Theme Co-ordinator, as well as Sub-Project 1.1 Coordinator : Earth and Ocean Monitoring Network across Southern Africa (SADC): a long-term regional project to support a multi-disciplinary Earth science approach, phase II  ( www.inkaba.org >  The Science > Phase II > Heart of Africa).

Further information, on this one of its kind in the southern hemisphere, could be obtained from http://www.hartrao.ac.za/spacegeodesy

Award for Best International Student Paper :

Lihle Madyibi, UCT

Inkaba student, Lihle Madyibi, an MSc. Geology Candidate - Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town was awarded a Carlos Walter M.Campos Memorial Award for the Best International Student Paper at the AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Cape Town 2008. The award also meant his free ticket to the next AAPG International Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2009. The topic of his talk entitled: Evidence of Petroleum System Evolution of the Southern Bredasdorp Basin, South Africa: A Multi-dimensional Approach. For IES Schlumberger, and GFZ Germany, this also acknowledges their efforts and time dedicated for mentoring Lihle during his research visits to Aaechen and Potsdam.

 

 

Evidence of petroleum system evolution of the southern Bredasdorp Basin, South Africa: A multi-dimensional approach

Lihle Madyibi1, Rolando di Primio2, George C. Smith1, Gesa Kuhlman2, Zahie Anka2          

1Department of Geological Sciences, University of Cape Town, 7701 Rondebosch, South Africa

2Department 4 Chemistry of the Earth, Section 4.3 Organic Geochemistry, GeoForschungsZentrum, Telegrafenberg, D-14473, Germany

The southernmost Bredasdorp Basin, offshore South Africa, remains only partially understood with respect to petroleum systems evolution when compared to the northern and central flanks of the basin. The southern flank of the basin has been unsuccessful for hydrocarbons with most of the wells drilled to date yielding insignificant oil and gas shows. Incomplete integration of data in the southern area is a possible reason for the oil and gas search being hitherto unsuccessful. In this study, we apply a two-dimensional, later up-scaled to a three-dimensional, modeling approach in order to advance our understanding of the petroleum systems evolution in the southern flank of the Bredasdorp Basin.

The model is based on the interpretation of 64490 m two-dimensional seismic-reflection profile, as well as the analyses of well logs and cores that constrain the sedimentary facies distribution and the units’ age. Three main source rock intervals (Barremian, Aptian and Turonian) were modeled for maturity and hydrocarbon generation.

Different scenarios of erosion and heat flow histories were considered for model calibration. The best calibration with vitrinite reflectance data is achieved when an erosive event, removing up to 1000 m of Maastrichtian to early Paleogene sediments, is accounted for in the model.  Maturity predictions suggest that the Barremian and Aptian source rocks are currently mature and started generating hydrocarbons at about 80 Ma, whereas the Turonian source rock is immature. Present-day modeled transformation ratios for both mature source rocks are higher than 50%. Nevertheless, petroleum generation seems to be halted at about 69 Ma due to uplift end erosion.

Fieldwork : Students with Dr Ute Weckmann (GFZ)

Research on the southern Barberton greenstone belt (in action)
 

Within this framework, magnetotelluric (MT) data were collected across one of the oldest continental collisions in the Archean, the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa, to study continental accretion processes. New MT measurements in this region are planned for 2010.
 

New Inkaba yeAfrica students from Germany, Xiaoming Chen and Andreas Nube are seen here doing MT field experiments within the Inkaba yeAfrica project -  with their supervisor, Dr Ute Weckmann.  Students assist with processing and interpretation of MT data
and developing novel interpretation and modeling methods.

 



The title of Xaioming Chen's research:  Constraint 2D anisotropic inversion of the MT data along the Agulhas-Karoo transect and Andreas Nube's :  Magnetotelluric measurements across the southern Barberton greenstone belt : data analysis. 

 

A new SA 2009 student from UCT, Scott MacLennan was part of this group with his title being:  Magnetotelluric experiment across southern Barberton Greenstone Belt: a students' perspective of the field work.

International Links / Sources of Information

AGIWEB - American Geological Institute: US organisation of geoscientists supporting geoscience education

AWI  -  Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

BMBF  -  Federal Ministry of Education and Research

DAAD  -  Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst / German Academic Exchange Service

DFG  -  Deutsche Forshungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation)

EGU - European Geosciences Union

GIC  -  German Information Centre, German Embassy - Pretoria, South Africa

GFZ-Potsdam  -  Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ Research Centre for Geosciences

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

ICASE - International Council of Associations for Science Education: international organisation of all science education associations

ICSU Africa - International Council for Science in Africa

IGEO - International Geoscience Education Organisation: organisation supporting geoscience education development and running four-yearly international GeoSciEd conferences

IUGG - International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics

IUGS - International Union of Geological Sciences: international organisation supporting geoscience

IUGS-COGE - Commission on Geoscience Education: IUGS commission leading international geoscience education development

National Advisory Council on Innovation - SA

Science in Africa - Funding

Y.E.S.- Young Earth-Scientists  

 
  Additional Funding Sources
  for science and technology in South Africa

  • Innovation Fund
    The Innovation Fund provides grants to fund the end-stage research process where research knowledge can be translated into new and improved products, processes or services.

  • GODISA Programme
    The Programme aims to increase economic growth and employment creation through the enhancement of technological innovation, improvement in productivity and accelerated international competitiveness of South African SMMEs.

  • Technology and Human Resource for Industry Programme (THRIP)
    The Programme aims to improve the competitiveness of South African industry, by supporting research and technology development activities and enhancing the quantity and quality of appropriately skilled people.

  • Support Program for Industrial Innovation Fund (SPII)
    SPII is designed to promote technology development in manufacturing industries in South Africa through support for innovation of competitive products and/or processes.

  • Thuthuka Programme
    A research capacity building initiative aimed to develop and advance research capacity of the individual researchers from the designated research communities. Information and specific criteria for participating in the three sub-programmes can be found in these following links: REDIBA, Women in Research, and Researchers in Training.

  • Medical Research Council (MRC) funding opportunities
    The MRC offers a number of grants for research, travel, research capacity development and research training.

  • Safety in Mines Research Advisory Committee (SIMRAC)
    SIMRAC identifies research projects to address and reduce safety risks on mines, and determines the cost and priorities of projects, concludes agreements for carrying out projects, imposes a levy to fund research, monitors the progress on these projects and communicates research results to all stakeholders.

  Other sources of information

 

Cultivating PhDs for Global Competitiveness in SA

South Africa's global competitiveness depends on cultivating a pool of highly skilled doctoral graduates, according to Dr Albert van Jaarsveld, CEO and President of the National Research Foundation (NRF), which spearheads the SA PhD Project.

The NRF is the country’s key public entity responsible for supporting the development of human capacity and knowledge generation. Close on 300 postgraduate students mainly engaged in studies towards their Masters degrees gathered for the 2009 PhD Conference. An accompanying exhibition showcased the opportunities for study, financial support and research in South Africa and around the world. Among the countries from which exhibitors are drawn are Singapore, the United States, the Netherlands and Germany. The NRF also manages the country’s national research facilities in the fields of Astro/Space and Geosciences, Biodiversity/Conservation and Nuclear Sciences. These facilities will exhibit the research opportunities available at their centres.

“The main aim is to increase the diversity of and strengthen the corporate and higher education sectors by increasing the number of PhD graduates” said Dr Carol Nonkwelo who manages the project. Presently South Africa graduates 27 PhDs per million of population compared to 42 in Brazil, 172 in South Korea, 240 in Australia and 259 in the UK. Our performance is well below par for an emergent economy.

Dr Van Jaarsveld added that the initiative aligns with the country’s National System of Innovation (NSI) and aims to position South Africa as a leader in knowledge production in all fields of scientific research, including social science, humanities, law, natural sciences and engineering.

The Project’s broad mandate is to:

  • Secure and promote foreign and local study opportunities
  • Offer competitive bursary packages to PhD and post-doctoral candidate
  • Promote the professional advantages of obtaining a PhD through peer and mentor support groups
  • Increase the pipeline of potential candidates that can qualify for PhD studies and
  • Partner with universities, funding agencies and business.


 

 

2010/05/16 05:34 PM