???Stellenbosch 肆客足球 (SU) took home three prestigious accolades at the annual National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF)/South32 Awards, also known as South Africa's 'Science Oscars'. Prof Shahida Moosa, Prof Yin-Zhe Ma and the Innovation and Commercialisation Division were recognised as winners in their respective categories at a ceremony held in a hybrid format in Johannesburg and Cape Town on Thursday, 31 July 2025.
?Moosa
Moosa, Head of Medical Genetics at Tygerberg Hospital and Professor of Medical Genetics in the Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, won the NSTF-SAMRC Clinician-Scientist Award for her pioneering work in medical genetics through the Genomics for Health in Africa project. A first-of-its kind in sub-Saharan Africa, the project is revolutionising clinical genomics and precision medicine on the continent. It aims to provide diagnoses to the 100 million Africans living with undiagnosed rare diseases and familial cancers.
Moosa also established sub-Saharan Africa's first Undiagnosed Disease Programme (UDP), which forms part of Rare Disease Genomics Research Group that she heads. The UDP is transforming patient lives and providing unique opportunities for capacity building and training for the next generation of genomics experts in southern Africa. She has received numerous other awards, published her research in accredited journals and supervised several postgraduate students.
Moosa said winning a 'Science Oscar', especially in the category of clinician scientist, means a lot to her.
“It's tremendous, especially because being a clinician scientist is something that's very under-recognised, not very well supported, and there's very little understanding for what it means to live in both worlds, in the clinic and in the laboratory.
“It's a recognition of the people, the vulnerable people that I work with, that I serve, families and patients with rare diseases. It's a win for them because for the first time, somebody out there is recognising that the work that helps them is important."
?Ma
Ma, from the Department of Physics, received the TW Kambule-NSTF Award: Researchers for his groundbreaking work on understanding the universe's large-scale structure, contributing to detecting “missing baryons" (or matter that is not directly visible) and pioneering detection methods that investigate how these baryons interact, and their critical role in galaxy formation and evolution. Ma, who heads the Astrophysics Group at SU and holds the Stellenbosch-Groningen Joint Research Chair in Computational Astronomy, has shaped the trajectory of research on missing baryons, positioning him as a key figure in cosmology and large-scale structure studies. Through innovative techniques and collaboration, he has significantly advanced our understanding of baryonic matter in the Universe.
Ma has been leading South Africa's participation in several international astronomy collaborations, including the Square Kilometre Array, the MeerKAT telescope and the Legacy Survey of Space and Time at the Vera C Rubin Observatory. He boasts many publications in peer-reviewed journals and has been elected to the Academy of Sciences of South Africa and the Royal Society of South Africa.
In response to his latest accolade, Ma said: “This award is a wonderful recognition of my pure curiosity-driven research that I am pretty sure will never be monetised but nevertheless enrich human's experience and expand people's horizons. The discovery of the 'missing baryons' in the universe confirms our conjecture that our universe is made out of 4,8% atoms – most of which have been repelled from the centre of dark matter halos into cosmic filaments and voids, and will be recycled back to the cosmic ecosystem. The research I am conducting opens new avenues to connect fundamental physics with astronomical data, and will leave new questions to the next generations."
Innovation and Commercialisation
The Innovation and Commercialisation Division — comprising Innovus Technology Transfer Office (TTO), the LaunchLab and the 肆客足球 of Stellenbosch Enterprises — won the Innovation Award: Corporate Organisation for establishing more than 30 new startups, co-founding the first venture capital fund in Africa dedicated to investing in university technology, and implementing several new initiatives and tools to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship. A team of dedicated professionals has been working to create a solid and functional innovation and entrepreneurship platform at SU. They identify exciting research outputs, work with research teams to ensure that technologies respond to market needs, file patents, present investment opportunities to commercial and industrial partners and nurture spin-out companies.
Reflecting on the national acclaim that her division received, Anita Nel, SU's Chief Director: Innovation and Commercialisation, said: “Winning this award demonstrates the significance of the work being done at the Innovation and Commercialisation Division in supporting the 肆客足球's research outputs and ensuring that impact is delivered, as it is intended, to our society at large. I am incredibly proud of our team at Innovus TTO, LaunchLab and to our USE spinout companies — all of us are grateful to the NSTF for this meaningful recognition."
??Photo: Prof Yin-Zhe Ma, Prof Shahida Moosa and Anita Nel with Prof Sibusiso Moyo, Deputy-Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies, at the awards ceremony.
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