Stellenbosch University (SU) has started a conversation with one of the top research universities in the US to discuss the possibility of research collaboration. Prof Wim de Villiers, Rector & Vice-Chancellor of SU, met with Dr Robert J. Jones, Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), on Thursday 22 February.

Dr Jones, an accomplished university administrator and scientist, who has a background in agronomy, reached out to SU to explore linkages in especially agriculture and engineering. The former president of the University of Albany, SUNY and senior vice-president of the University of Minnesota, also expressed interest in hosting student mobility programmes. He extended an invitation to Prof de Villiers to visit Illinois, an institution which boasts as part of its list achievements, inventing the first graphical web browser. Ranked amongst the 15 best public universities in the US, the university has produced 24 Nobel Prize winners in the fields of medicine, physics and chemistry. The university is classified as an R1 Doctoral Research University under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which indicates the highest levels of research activity.

Dr Jones, who is on a weeklong visit to South Africa and Malawi, has a long history with the country. From 1984 to 1994 he served as an academic and scientific consultant for Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Education Program. Dr Jones is travelling with his wife, Dr Lynn Hassan Jones, a diagnostic radiologist.  

Picture: Drs Lynn Hassan Jones and Robert J. Jones met up with a group of SU students while on campus. The Jones couple is pictured, third and fourth right, and Prof de Villiers is on the left.

Photo: Anton Jordaan