My vision for the future of research at UP and how I will contribute to this development
In his book?The Naked Leader. The best-selling guide to unlimited success? David Taylor states that professional success is not actually due to good fortune, but more a matter of choice.He asks the question:?Imagine if you simply could not fail. What would you do? Where would you go? Who would you be??This question may seem an absurd fragment of someone’s imagination when considering that the academic research environment and education at tertiary institutions in South Africa are experiencing of the most challenging and turbulent times in history. Dire economic constraints, funding for basic and even applied scientific research are hard to come by, irrespective of the field of interest. Scientists should therefore more than ever focus on question-driven research, be it relevant to basic or applied scientific discovery. Undergraduate and postgraduate training should be focused on a thorough grounding in technical aspects (field or laboratory-based) and in-depth theoretical knowledge of relevant analytical skills of the particular field of research. The development of science communication skills is equally important as these will equip scientists to communicate their research findings and applications thereof to both a scientific and general audience, and thereby, attract interest from potential collaborators and funding bodies (locally and internationally). The art of communicating complex scientific content in a simple manner to a general audience may well result in attracting funding from industry and the private sector, if scientists can be convince them of the value of our research to their diverse spheres of interest.