NWU women shine at prestigious science awards
North-West University (NWU) women continue to shine during Women's Month and their extraordinary achievements do not go unnoticed.
On 15 August, a researcher from the NWU took home a South African Women in Science award and a student received the DST-Albertina Sisulu Fellowship award for her doctoral studies at the prestigious award ceremony in Port Elizabeth.
The Department of Science and Technology's (DST's) SAWiSA awards recognise excellence among women scientists and researchers.
Prof Martinette Kruger, a full-time researcher and professor at Tourism Research in Economics, Environs and Society (TREES), received the Distinguished Young Woman Researcher Award for Humanities and Social Sciences.
One of her research focuses is understanding how events can facilitate tourism in a developing country and multicultural society context. Prof Kruger has engaged in long-term industry research projects with various festivals and events, as well as international projects involving the European Union and the Thompson Rivers University in Canada, among others.
She holds a PhD in tourism management and hails from the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.
PhD student of the NWU Anneke Schoeman is one of the winners of the DST-Albertina Sisulu Fellowship award.
This prestigious fellowship is awarded to six master's degree students and six doctoral students. Recognising outstanding ability and potential in research, the fellowship aims to enhance the recipients' research experience and output, and to encourage more young women to complete research degrees.
The annual SAWiSA awards profile exceptional researchers and scientists as role models for women. The theme of this year's awards was: "Making the fourth industrial revolution work for women". It emphasised the major role women, who account for more than half of the population of the world, have to play to unleash the power and potential of all humanity to benefit from the fourth industrial revolution.
Every year awards are made in the Distinguished Woman and Distinguished Young Woman Researcher categories for research in the Natural (Life and Physical) and Engineering Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences and Research and Innovation (R&I).