Double win for science as Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship awarded to two recipients
This year, the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust has recognised not one, but two exceptional scientists in their fields, and is granting each of them its most prestigious honours: the R2.5m Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award.
Supplied image: Wits University physicist Professor Andrew Forbes (left) and University of Cape Town paediatric neurosurgeon Professor Anthony Figaji (right), presented with their joint 2024/2025 Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Awards by Oppenheimer Memorial Trust chair Rebecca Oppenheimer. Each has been awarded R2.5-million to further his groundbreaking research.
The prize rewards high-calibre scholars who are “engaged in cutting-edge and internationally significant research that has particular application to the advancement of knowledge, teaching, research and development in South Africa and beyond”.
The recipients of the fellowship award are: University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) physicist, Professor Andrew Forbes; and University of Cape Town (UCT) paediatric neurosurgeon, Professor Anthony Figaji.
“Each of our awardees made such a strong case that we found it impossible to choose between them – so we decided to double down in a time when our country needs it most. We’re very excited to be supporting their quests to make our world a better place for all who live in it,” says OMT chair Rebecca Oppenheimer.
Professor Andrew Forbes - quantum computing
Professor in the Wits School of Physics and head of its Structure Light Laboratory, Forbes is approaching the question of quantum information from a novel point of view. His research could unlock the viability of quantum computing, which will be exponentially more powerful than current technology, thereby placing South Africa at the heart of computational progress worldwide and unleashing unquantifiable economic benefits.
The success of his research would enable humanity to harness AI in a revolutionary manner, leading to solutions to difficult problems in fields such as chemistry, pharmacology, logistics, finance and many more. In addition, this will be accomplished without the unsustainably huge energy price, environmentally speaking, that we currently pay for AI.
Forbes will lead a team of South African researchers and select international partners, including leading scientists from China’s Huzhou University, France’s Sorbonne University and Australia’s Monash University, to practically demonstrate an entirely novel way of managing quantum information.
“We would develop a quantum-literate workforce that realises our country’s immense human potential, sparking human and economic opportunities that we cannot yet imagine,” he says.
Professor Anthony Figaji - paediatric brain injury response
As head of Paediatric Neurosurgery at UCT and the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, Figaji aims to advance paediatric brain injury response through his research and could save the lives of many brain-injured children.
He will lead a research project that will analyse a vast trove of data and a bio-bank of samples collected at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital over more than a decade, and build academic capacity at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Three separate analyses will be done to bolster the treatment of secondary brain injury: the cascade of complex physiological events that occur as a result of an initial brain injury, such as swelling and lack of oxygenation, which can influence each other and create a vicious cycle that doubles and even trebles mortality.
Properly understanding how to identify and treat these secondary events is the key to substantially improving patient outcomes, by as much as 50%; not only that, it can help in the development of guidelines for institutions that don’t have sophisticated resources to easily identify and effectively respond to secondary brain injury.
Figaji believes that if his research yields positive results it could draw researchers from all over the world to South Africa, which would be the epicentre of the study of paediatric traumatic brain injury.