Science Café Stellenbosch

Science Café Stellenbosch is an initiative of the Faculty of Science at Stellenbosch University to promote the public discussion of science.

The aim of a Science Café is to bridge the gap between science and the general public by entering into a conversation in a non-academic environment, like a restaurant or café. There are already hundreds of Science Cafés all over the world.

Prof Louise Warnich, dean of the Faculty of Science at SU, says a Science Café is the ideal opportunity to involve the public in conversations about science: "Scientists have a responsibility to communicate the findings of their research, but we have an even greater responsibility to engage with the general public, and that in a language that everyone can understand."

For more information, contact sciencecafe@sun.ac.za and join our mailing list.

The next Science Café

Topic: "In defense of basic research"

Speaker: Prof Len Barbour

Date: 17 March 2022

Time: 18:00 - 19:00

Venue: In-person at Die Stal, Suidwal Street, Coetzenburg

Online Platform: MS Teams

RSVP: science@sun.ac.za

More about the talk

In celebration of the International Year of Basic Science for Sustainable Development (2022 IYBSSD), Science Café Stellenbosch is hosting a series of talks about the impact of the fundamental sciences on technology and sustainable development in South Africa and Africa.

More about the speaker

Prof Len Barbour obtained his PhD in chemistry from the University of Cape Town in 1994. In 2003 he joined Stellenbosch University as an associate professor, and since 2007 he holds the SA Research Chair in Nanostructured Functional Materials. In 2013 he obtained a DSc from Stellenbosch University, with Prof Catharine Esterhuysen as promoter. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including most recently the John Herschel Medal of the Royal Society of South Africa (2020), the South African Chemical Institute Gold Medal (2014), and the Sasol Innovator of the Year award (2013). He has supervised over 25 PhD, 23 MSc and 17 BScHons students and serves on the editorial boards of a wide-range of academic journals. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Crystallographic Association, and the South African Chemical Institute. He has registered five patents, and authored and co-authored six book chapters and 225 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Below: Well-known nature lover Dave Pepler in conversation with scientists Lester Davids, Jannie Hofmeyr and Gideon Wolfaardt about the evolution of skin colour, the wonder of the human cell, and your own personal microbiome at a previous Woordfees.