Two MSc students in microbiology and computer science were awarded the Best Oral Presentation awards at the second Faculty of Science Postgraduate Research Conference which took place on 30 November 2023.

Aza Mqulwa, from the Department of Microbiology, won the award in the Biological Sciences category for his oral presentation titled “Recombinant ᴅ-allulose 3-epimerase production in Komagataella pastoris: complementary innovations to reduce clonal screening burden". From the Computer Science Division, Jaco du Toit won in the Physical Sciences category for his presentation titled “Hierarchical Text Classification using Language Models with Global Label-wise Attention Mechanisms".

Prof. Frikkie Scholtz, Vice-Dean: Research in the Faculty of Science, says the purpose of the conference is to provide a platform for MSc and PhD students to present their research to a wider audience, thereby honing their presentation skills, and to advertise the postgraduate research done in the Faculty of Science to staff, stakeholders, industry partners and other postgraduate students.

Runner-ups in the Biological Sciences category were Massimo Nunes and Nicola Vahrmeijer, both from the Department of Physiological Sciences. Best poster awards in this category went to Asandile Mangali and Daleen Conradie, also from the Department of Physiological Sciences, and Hannah Foster from the Department of Microbiology.

In the Physical Sciences category, the runner ups for best oral presentations were Dylan Callaghan from the Computer Science Division, and Conrad Strydom from the Department of Physics. Best poster awards in this category went to Ruan Visser from the Computer Science Division, Alexandra Smith from the Applied Mathematics Division, and Jessica Thibaud from the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science.

On the photos above: Ruan Visser, ​Aza Mqulwa, and ​Asandile Mangali. Credit: Ignus Dreyer​​

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