Faculty of Health Sciences Celebrates Academic Lives of Excellence
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The Faculty hosted the first prestigious “Celebrating Academic Lives of Excellence” event to honoured Emeritus Professors Kramer and Gray.
The first prestigious “Celebrating Academic Lives of Excellence” event was held on Tuesday the 28th February 2017 to honour Emeritus Professors Beverley Kramer and David Gray.
Emeritus Professor Beverley Kramer has been a staff member at Wits for over 45 years, and delivered an address entitled “Leadership and integrity in scholarship: learning from the past, planning for the future”. The address, based on her own experience and from observations of many different kinds of leaders which she has observed over her academic career at Wits and also in the international arena, dealt with the complex question of what makes an effective, fair and commendable academic leader. In addition, Professor Kramer drew on examples from the popular and academic press to illustrate violations in research integrity, such as parasitic authorship, falsification of data and “ghost” writing, amongst others. As there has been an increase in these breaches in the Faculty of Health Sciences over time, Professor Kramer suggested that we should engage with postgraduate students and staff to ensure that they are suitably informed. She emphasized the need to strive for excellence and integrity at all times. Professor Kramer concluded her lecture with a quote from US President Dwight Eisenhower: “The supreme quality of leadership is integrity”.
Emeritus Professor David Gray has been a staff member at Wits since 1994, and presented “Reflections on the job of an academic physiologist at Wits: has it changed in the past 25 years?” Although he entertained the idea of talking about his football club (Newcastle United), the academic in him won and he described how the academic aspects of teaching and research in physiology have changed over time. Despite increasing undergraduate and postgraduate student numbers, increased staff workload and changes in student preparedness, the average pass rates remained constant over time. Course content and its clinical application haven’t changed, but the way in which physiology is taught has changed. Professor Gray noted that academics have to be aware of the need to be pedagogically astute, and up to date with the latest teaching methods and technology. Research was always an expectation in the Physiology department, but over time has shifted to more clinical, less “basic” research, being conducted in collaborative groups. Access to information is now technology driven and he humorously reminded us of interlibrary loans and reprint request cards. Professor Gray cautioned against “remote control physiology”, particularly the loss of animal experimentation skills. He concluded that there are new challenges to carrying out physiology research, so academics have to work smarter.
Following the presentations, the current Heads of Schools of Anatomical Sciences and Physiology, Professors Maryna Steyn and William Daniels, presented the two Emeritus Professors with replicas of the “One-Two-Three” sculpture by Professor Laurence Anthony Chait. Professor Chait, who is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Plastic Surgery, is not only a highly skilled and dedicated plastic surgeon but also an internationally renowned artist. Chait was commissioned by the Faculty to create the magnificent bronze “One-Two-Three”, which now resides in the Phillip V. Tobias Health Sciences Building. The bronze echoes the Faculty of Health Sciences vision of family and community.