Having notched up over 50 Stellenbosch harvests, Jan Boland Coetzee has established himself as a leader in the technological, social and management development of the South African wine industry. This former Springbok rugby player is also a cherished alumnus and friend of Stellenbosch University (SU).  

Originally from Porterville on the West Coast, Coetzee obtained his BScAgric majoring in Viticulture/Oenology and Chemistry in 1968, having already experienced his first harvest as a winemaker on the Stellenbosch farm Kanonkop the previous year. In 1980, he bought the farm Vriesenhof in Paradyskloof, where he has since been crafting among the finest wines South Africa has to offer.

But Coetzee's contribution to the wine industry goes far beyond that. Aside from his extensive knowledge of terroir in South Africa and Europe, he has a unique ability to identify the origin of wines. He has spent a lifetime advocating for South African wines that reflect the uniqueness of the region and the African continent, and he played a key role in securing the international recognition our wines enjoy. As one of the founder members of the Cape Winemakers Guild, he selflessly shared his winemaking expertise through the Guild's protégé programmes for viticulture and oenology. These involved a series of internships with members of the Guild, offering youths an opportunity to learn from the best in the business.

Understanding the value of a happy, healthy workforce, Coetzee helped set up the Rural Foundation in the 1970s. Along with other leading wine farmers, he used this platform to improve the working and living conditions of workers on local wine farms. It proved so successful, that the concept was expanded across the country. When the Foundation closed down, Coetzee continued pursuing social upliftment initiatives for farmworkers, both through industry programmes and private efforts on Vriesenhof.

In the sporting arena, he served Maties and Stellenbosch rugby for over 50 years – first as a highly ranked Maties player and then coach, and later as vice-president of the Stellenbosch Rugby Club, the second oldest in South Africa. Having first worn the green-and-gold jersey at 29, Coetzee still epitomises the values of Springbok rugby, and his insight in the game is highly regarded.

As one of the initiators of the Institute for Grape and Wine Sciences – a joint venture between industry and SU – he has worked tirelessly to ensure that the Institute remains independent while also harnessing the cutting-edge research abilities of his alma mater. He has also been a valued mentor to successive AgriSciences deans and departmental chairs. His special friendship with SU and its Faculty of AgriSciences continues.

Jan Boland Coetzee embodies the work ethic, enquiring mind and engaged citizenship that SU wishes to instil in its graduates. His pursuit of excellence in his field, as well as his generosity of spirit, is worthy of the University's highest honour.

* Prof John Latham received on 3 April at 10:00 the degree Doctor of Commerce (DCom), honoris causa): Latham is honoured for his visionary, courageous and innovative leadership in skilfully steering his academic institution to greatness through troubling times.  
In the acceptance speech he said: “There is no greater honour than to be recognised by your peers," were his words. He also said that Stellenbosch is a great university and it has an outstanding reputation, not only nationally but also globally.

People with cell phones can click here to watch the video.

The commendation read at the ceremony: A higher education leader of note, Professor John Latham, Vice-Chancellor of Coventry University, United Kingdom (UK), skilfully steered his institution through troubling times. With a highly acclaimed turnaround strategy, he has established Coventry as an accessible, student-centred and enterprise-oriented teaching and learning environment. In an age where higher education institutions globally grapple with the need for greater student access and programme relevance, as well as dwindling state funding, Latham proved to be the right leader at the right time for Coventry. After three years as a software engineer, he joined the university as a Computer Science lecturer. Here, he became an information and technology specialist in the areas of higher education, telecommunications and healthcare, as well as a leader in innovation at universities and in industry more broadly.After completing an MBA at Coventry, his responsibilities shifted to commercial and research development. With the institution slipping on the Guardian university league tables, Latham – by that time Deputy Vice-Chancellor – became closely involved in devising a turnaround strategy with enterprise as central ethos. As Vice-Chancellor and CEO since 2013, Latham has taken the lead in the mammoth task of implementing this strategy, which included a restructuring of all faculties and research centres. His leadership has since seen Coventry being lauded for its student-centred approach to teaching and learning, top student satisfaction rates, innovative methods to improve student access with success, industry-focused research strategy and vastly improved international footprint – and for accomplishing this in record time.So rapid was Latham's success that Coventry was named modern university of the year in the league tables of The Times and Sunday Times in 2014. In 2015, it was named UK university of the year, being praised for its pioneering “bold attempts to tackle the issues facing higher education". That same year, it also won the Queen's Enterprise Award for outstanding achievement in innovation, internationalisation and sustainable development. In 2018, the institution was the highest-ranked new university (<50 years) in both the Guardian University Guide and Complete University Guide. In addition, the recently published results of the UK government's Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) placed Coventry second among the 138 universities assessed.

Latham's visionary leadership and managerial competence have made him a valued contributor to other forums as well. These include being programme advisor to the European Commission, a council member for the National Centre for Universities and Business, a member of the Universities UK Innovation and Growth Policy Network, a member of the UK government's National Growth Board, and deputy chair of the University Alliance. Having appointed him as an extraordinary professor in our very own Department of Business Management, Stellenbosch University (SU) too has benefited from his extensive innovation expertise.

The accessible, relevant and student-centred teaching and learning environment that John Latham has created at Coventry serves as an inspiration to SU. His example of courageous leadership will guide us on our journey to become globally recognised as excellent, inclusive and innovative.

The University is honoured to confer on him the degree Doctor of Commerce (DCom), honoris causa, for his visionary, courageous and innovative leadership in skilfully steering his academic institution to greatness through troubling times; and for sharing his acclaimed and valued expertise in higher education management in various forums, including as extraordinary professor at Stellenbosch University.

• Dr Shirley Ann Jackson  was on 3 April at 17:00  awarded the degree Doctor of Engineering (DEng), honoris causa):
  In her acceptance speech she said:

  “Why not change the world?" is a question Dr Jackson always used to ask her students in America. She posed the same question to the graduates at the third graduation ceremony of Stellenbosch University (SU) on Wednesday evening.

  “Your education has given you the power to discover and innovate. But something beyond that is the power to uplift humanity. The world cannot address the great threats to humanity without revolutionary developments, new technology and prophesies …

  “You will have the opportunity to fix what is intolerable to society. All of you should work together towards a peaceful planet. That is the path to reach a meaningful career and life," she said.

  According to Jackson the world's threats and problems were too complex to be confronted by only one person or discipline. “Today, humanity's challenges are global and urgent." She said that interdisciplinary collaboration across the world was the only way to overcome these challenges and change the world.
  

  
  
  
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  Cell phone users can click here to watch the video.
  

  The commendation read before the degree was bestowed upon her: Shirley Ann Jackson has made outstanding contributions to science, engineering and education. As close friend and mentor to former Stellenbosch University (SU) Rector, the late Professor Russel Botman, her experience and support as 18^th president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute also played a key part in the birth of SU's high-impact HOPE Project and the belief that what happens at SU matters to the world.

  Born in Washington DC to parents who put a premium on education, Jackson graduated from school in 1964 as valedictorian of her class. She enrolled at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – one of only 20 African-American students there, and the only one studying theoretical physics. Her successful study career at MIT culminated in a PhD in nuclear physics in 1973. As the first African-American woman ever to obtain a doctorate in physics in the United States, she again broke new ground.

  After postdoctoral fellowships at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois and the European Organisation of Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland, Jackson was employed by AT&T Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. Here she spent 15 years researching the optical and electronic properties of layered materials, such as strain-layer semiconductor superlattices. Eager to transfer her knowledge and skills to a next generation of scientists, she later accepted a physics professorship at Rutgers University, New Jersey.

  In 1999, Jackson continued her now established role as trailblazer when she became the first woman and African-American to be elected as president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Her vision was to transform Rensselaer into a world-class technological research university – a vision she has since achieved: Having seen investment of more than $1,25 billion over the past 15 years, the campus has been transformed with state-of-the-art research facilities. These include the Centre for Computational Innovations, boasting the most powerful supercomputer at a private university in the United States. Rensselaer's international rankings have risen substantially, and its first-year intake has tripled. Jackson initiated curriculum transformation, growth in undergraduate research and a radically changed student experience, including the award-winning CLASS (Clustered Learning, Advocacy and Support for Students) programme. Approaching its bicentennial in 2024, the university offers a comprehensive student experience, pedagogical innovations such as mixed-reality classroom, and advanced research in data science, artificial intelligence and cognitive science.

  In addition to a number of positions as science, technology and innovation advisor to state bodies, her expertise also earned her two presidential appointments – chair of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission under President Bill Clinton, and member of President Barack Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

  SU is honoured to confer on Shirley Ann Jackson the degree Doctor of Engineering (DEng), honoris causa, for her role as trailblazer in the academic sphere and her commitment to the transformation of higher education; for her outstanding contributions to science, engineering and technology; and for her leadership that helped shape Stellenbosch University into a university in Africa, for the world.
  

  
  
  
• Prof Lloyd Nicholas Trefethen was  honoured with the degree Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa on 5 April 2019:
  In the acceptance speech he said: 

  “I am so glad to be here at this joyous occasion," Trefethen said after having received his honorary doctorate degree.

  “I am going to talk about Mathematics," he said in an amusing way to the graduates using the opportunity to highlight the importance of this subject not loved by everybody.
  “Mathematics is a study free from space and time. Mathematics is done today, and was done 1 000 years ago, even 2 000 years ago. It is done everywhere in the world. The discoveries of each era are built on those in the previous era. Always moving forward. Mathematics forms the foundation of the enterprise science engineering and affects society in a pervasive and unexpected way."

  Trefethen, who clearly has a great passion for Mathematics said that he “loved" Mathematics since he was a child. He has been working with Maths since he was 19 years old. 
  

   
  
  Commendation read at the ceremony:
  

  With an astonishing body of work, esteemed mathematical scientist Professor Lloyd N. Trefethen has advanced the global popularisation of mathematics. For over 30 years, he has also keenly supported numerical mathematics in South Africa, contributing to a scarce skill the country desperately needs.
  

  Having obtained his first degree in Applied Mathematics summa cum laude from Harvard College, and his master's degree and doctorate from Stanford, Trefethen spent two years at the well-known Courant Institute at New York University as a postdoctoral fellow of the United States National Science Foundation. Following positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Cornell University, he accepted a professorship at Oxford University, United Kingdom, where he continues to break new ground as head of the Numerical Analysis Group.

  The contributions of this unofficial global guardian of numerical mathematics encompass over 100 research papers, eight books and multiple practical innovations. These include a 1993 paper on hydrodynamic stability published in the journal Science, which has garnered more than 1 500 citations, and his Numerical Linear Algebra, which has become the standard postgraduate text in the field since it appeared in 1997.  Moreover, numerous scholars have benefited from the convenience and computational power offered by his ambitious Chebfun project, an open-source add-on to the state-of-the-art commercial computational package MATLAB.

  Unlike many of his peers, Trefethen also regularly ventures beyond the confines of his field into areas such as physics and health science, where he challenges the conventional wisdom with novel insight. One example is his mathematical analysis of the Faraday cage, the phenomenon that shields microwaves from exiting the gridded window of a microwave oven, while allowing light waves to do so.   Perhaps the most dramatic example is his redefinition of the body mass index as a measure of obesity in humans, which made international headlines.

  Generously sharing his expertise, he has established an enduring relationship with South Africa, supporting budding mathematical scientists countrywide. Apart from welcoming our scholars abroad, Trefethen has also become a regular visitor to our shores. From a strenuous national two-week lecture tour, to a number of visits to Stellenbosch as an active participant in the symposium of the South African Society for Numerical and Applied Mathematics (SANUM), he is known for making a special effort to engage with our academics and students alike.

  Honours bestowed on Trefethen include his election as a fellow of the Royal Society, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics as well as the American Mathematical Society. Prestigious awards such as the 2013 Naylor prize of the London Mathematical Society and the 2017 George Pólya prize for exposition in mathematical writing speak volumes about his stature.

  The University is honoured to confer on him the degree Doctor of Science (DSc), honoris causa, for his remarkable scholarship and his astonishing body of work advancing the global popularisation of mathematics; for challenging conventional wisdom with novel insight; and for generously sharing his expertise over 30 years to help cultivate a new generation of mathematical scientists on the African continent.

   

  
  

Together with the December 2018 graduation ceremonies (the two ceremonies form the 2018 academic year) 308 doctoral degrees are to be awarded – slightly more than the 305 of 2017.

The University will be awarding 3 128 degrees and diplomas at its six April graduation ceremonies at the Coetzenburg Centre in Stellenbosch from Tuesday, 2 April to Friday, 5 April 2019. This includes 953 master's degrees and 158 doctoral degrees.