The South African Academy for Science and Arts has announced that Prof Rufus Gouws is to receive the Jan H Marais Prize for his contribution to Afrikaans as an academic and scientific language.

During the course of a long career (which has not reached its end yet) he has received international recognition as a lexicographer – as his B2 research grading by the National Research Foundation, his involvement in the European Maters in Lexicography (EMLex) and his many appointments as professor extraordinary at institutions abroad attest. He has also exerted a tremendous influence on the academic development of students at the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch at Stellenbosch University (SU), with 36 Master’s and 24 doctoral students completing their research under his tutelage.

Prof Gouws's association with the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch began as a BA student 50 years ago, in 1972. That first degree was swiftly followed by another three and an appointment as lecturer in 1980. He has been a member of the teaching staff at the Department for 42 of the 45 years of his academic career and is currently one of the longest serving lecturers at SU.

It is wonderful that a colleague in the Department who is valued so highly has been awarded this honour by the South African Academy for Science and Technology in the Department's centenary year.​