The Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award is awarded annually by the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust. It is considered the top award for research on the African continent.

In Memory of Harry Oppenheimer

The Award was created in 2001, in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

, by the Trustees of the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, itself established in 1958 by

Harry Oppenheimer Harry Frederick Oppenheimer (28 October 1908 – 19 August 2000) was a prominent South African businessman, industrialist and philanthropist. Oppenheimer was often ranked as one of the wealthiest people in the world, and was considered South A ...

in memory of his father, Sir

Ernest Oppenheimer Sir Ernest Oppenheimer (22 May 1880 – 25 November 1957), KStJ was a diamond and gold mining entrepreneur, financier and philanthropist, who controlled De Beers and founded the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. Career Ernest Oppenhe ...

. The philanthropic vision of the once-richest man in the world is embedded within three foundations: #The

Brenthurst Foundation The Brenthurst Foundation is a Johannesburg-based think-tank established by the Oppenheimer family in 2004 to support the Brenthurst Initiative in seeking ways to fund African development and to organize conferences on African competitiveness. ...

contributes energetically to developing

economic empowerment Empowerment is the degree of autonomy and self-determination in people and in communities. This enables them to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting on their own authority. It is the process of becoming strong ...

in Africa. #The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust funds and encourages

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

, the

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

and the search for knowledge, through various

grants Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom *Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama * Grant, Inyo County, ...

and initiatives, and awards Africa's premier research prize, the Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award. #The Brenthurst Library which houses one of the largest collections of rare Africana in the world and the celebrated transcripts of Nelson Mandela's trials.

How the Fellowship Award is bestowed

Awardees are leading scholars who have a sustained record of outstanding

research Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

and

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator o ...

achievement at the highest level. They must have demonstrated a capacity for and a commitment to knowledge transfer to their fellow citizens. Up to now the Award has only been presented to South Africans or South Africa-based academics. The Award is made by a select committee and approved by the Trustees in December of each year. The Secretary General of the Academy of Science of South Africa chairs the selection proceedings. The remittance ceremony takes place in April following the year of the Award, at the Oppenheimers’ residence, Brenthurst, in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

. The Award (a gold medal and a monetary prize) is bestowed by Mrs. Harry (Bridget) Oppenheimer.

List of Laureates

Source
Oppenheimer Memorial Trust
* 2022: Michael Wingfield,

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 ...

*2018:

Valerie Mizrahi Valerie Mizrahi (born 1958) is a South African molecular biologist. Biography The daughter of Morris and Etty Mizrahi, she was born in Harare, Zimbabwe and was educated there. Her family is a Sephardi Jewish family from the Greek island of Rh ...

, University of Cape Town *2017:

Mark Solms Mark Solms (born 17 July 1961) is a South African psychoanalyst and neuropsychologist, who is known for his discovery of the brain mechanisms of dreaming and his use of psychoanalytic methods in contemporary neuroscience. He holds the Chair ...

, University of Cape Town *2016: Jointly awarded to University of Pretoria and University of Cape Town faculty member Professor Robert (Bob) Millar for his work in neuroendocrinology and Professor Lynn Morris, Research Professor at Wits University and Research Associate at the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) *2015: Jointly awarded to Brenda Wingfield, Professor of Genetics,

and Xolela Mangcu, professor in the Department of Sociology at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

*2014:

Helen Rees Helen Rees OBE GCOB is a medical researcher and the founder and Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) of the University of Witwatersrand. She has led many HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive healt ...

, Personal Professor in the Wits Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology *2013:

Keertan Dheda Keertan Dheda MBBCh ( Wits), FCP(SA), FCCP, PhD ( Lond), FRCP ( Lond), born in 1969, is a Professor of Mycobacteriology and Global health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) with an extra-mural joint appointment at ...

, Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Head of UCT's Division of Pulmonology *2012: Awarded Robin Crewe, Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria for his work on bees *2011: Les Underhill, Director of the Animal Demography Unit at the

. ''He will use the funds to continue a lifelong project entitled "Building early warning systems for Biodiversity in South Africa"''. *2010: Duncan Mitchell, Emeritus Professor at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

. ''He investigates the responses of large mammals to

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

and to southern hemisphere drying''. *2009: Jill Farrant, who holds the research chair in the molecular

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemic ...

of plant

desiccation Desiccation () is the state of extreme dryness, or the process of extreme drying. A desiccant is a hygroscopic (attracts and holds water) substance that induces or sustains such a state in its local vicinity in a moderately sealed container. ...

tolerance at the

and who is investigating the properties of the mostly South African drought-resistant "

resurrection plant A resurrection plant is any poikilohydric plant that can survive extreme dehydration, even over months or years. Examples include: * ''Anastatica hierochuntica'', also known as the Rose of Jericho, a plant species native to deserts of North Afric ...

s". ''She will use the award funds to allow her to work with Professor Felix Keller of the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

's Institute of Plant Biology and with Doctor Francesco Loreto of Italy's

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche The National Research Council (Italian: ''Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR'') is the largest research council in Italy. As a public organisation, its remit is to support scientific and technological research. Its headquarters are in Ro ...

(National Research Council) who investigates minuscule

lipid Lipids are a broad group of naturally-occurring molecules which includes fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids in ...

"volatiles" (chemical signals)''. *2008:

Philippe-Joseph Salazar Philippe-Joseph Salazar (), a French rhetorician and philosopher, was born on 10 February 1955 in Casablanca, then part of French Morocco. Salazar attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand a prestigious secondary-school in Paris (founded 1563) before ...

. ''Salazar, who studied with philosophers

Louis Althusser Louis Pierre Althusser (, ; ; 16 October 1918 – 22 October 1990) was a French Marxist philosopher. He was born in Algeria and studied at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where he eventually became Professor of Philosophy. Althusser ...

and

Emmanuel Levinas Emmanuel Levinas (; ; 12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995) was a French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry who is known for his work within Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and phenomenology, focusing on the relationship of ethics to ...

, is an alumnus of the prestigious

École Normale Supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

(France). A past director at

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed th ...

’s foundation, Collège International de Philosophie, he is one of the main disciples of

Marc Fumaroli Marc Fumaroli (10 June 1932 – 24 June 2020) was a French historian and essayist who was widely respected as an advocate for French literature and culture. While born in Marseille, Fumaroli grew up in the Moroccan city of Fez, and served in th ...

, himself a laureate of the

Balzan Prize The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organizations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the br ...

. His pioneering work on rhetoric has placed him at the forefront of this new discipline. He is a noted chronicler on rhetoric and politics for the French public intellectual news magazine L'Annuel des idées''. *2007: Jointly awarded to Jeff Guy

South African History Project The South African History Project (2001-2004) was established and initiated by Professor Kader Asmal, former Minister of Education in South Africa. This initiative followed after the publication of the Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy ...

and Winston Hide. ''Jeff Guy is a leading historian of traditional Africanism. Winston Hide is a leader in

stem cells In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of ...

research in relation to recurrence of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

in recovered patients.'' *2006: Paul Cilliers,

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest ext ...

''in recognition of his outstanding achievements in developing a general understanding of the characteristics and nature of

complex systems A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other. Examples of complex systems are Earth's global climate, organisms, the human brain, infrastructure such as power grid, transportation or communication sy ...

.'' *2005: Norman Owen-Smith, an A-rated scientist in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences at the

''Prize was awarded in recognition for his outstanding work in helping to foster an understanding of the dynamics of large mammalian herbivores in changing environments.'' *2004: Jointly awarded to Igor Barashenkov and Frank Brombacher, Director of the MRC Unit for

Immunology Immunology is a branch of medicineImmunology for Medical Students, Roderick Nairn, Matthew Helbert, Mosby, 2007 and biology that covers the medical study of immune systems in humans, animals, plants and sapient species. In such we can see ther ...

of Infectious Diseases in the IIDMM,

. *2003: ''No award presented''. *2002: Jan-Hendrik S. Hofmeyr of the Department of

Biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

at the

, ''for his pioneering work on the organization and behaviour of the living cell.'' *2001:

David Glasser David Glasser (born 29 September 1936) is a South African engineer best known for his co-development of attainable region theory and research into improving the efficiency of chemical processes. In 2001 he was the inaugural recipient of the Harr ...

of the School of Process and Material

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

at the

''was the first recipient of the award.''

References

{{Reflist Fellowships South African awards Awards established in 2001