Welcome to the Research Office

The South African Police Service (SAPS) is increasingly using Twitter to project an image of competence, visibility and professional problem-solving. However, as Dr Andrew Faull (postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre of Criminology) describes, this is part of a carefully scripted public performance that may be deceiving.

Africa has the highest accident rate per flying hour in the world, according to Professor Michael Inggs of the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Radar Remote Sensing Group at the University of Cape Town.

When Dr Katye Altieri set out in her postdoctoral research to understand the effects of air pollution on oceans, nobody anticipated the results. A recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) highlighted how little researchers actually understand about the complex relationship between the oceans and the atmosphere.

Land is an emotive issue in Africa. Exploring – and attempting to resolve – complex issues is a consistent theme in the work of Hanri Mostert, professor of private law and one of UCT's recently elected National Research Foundation (NRF) South African Research (SARChI) Chairs.

Is teen pregnancy in South Africa a symptom of conspicuous consumption, a sign of a morally dissolute generation, or a symbol of post-apartheid disillusionment? Based on three years of qualitative research in the Eastern and Western Cape, Dr Rebecca Hodes explores attitudes towards teenage pregnancy.

Young Bongani Mayosi’s ambition to become a doctor was shaped in the back of a Land Rover, as the car bounced over the hills under the wide skies of the Amathole district in the Eastern Cape. It was the start of a journey that would eventually see him appointed as dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town.

Lester M. Davids from UCT's Department of Human Biology writes in The Conversation about why some African countries have already banned the use of skin lightening creams, arguing that it's time for the rest of the continent to follow suit.

There is anxiety in many quarters about a shortage of academics in Africa?s universities. These worries have led to a spate of programs to identify, develop and retain a ?next generation? of scholars for the continent. Many of these initiatives are being driven by international agencies. But their success actually depends on local commitments by governments, institutions and individual academics. Read more ...

A team from the University of Cape Town's Industrial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Research Group has successfully broken the longstanding Class A water rocket world altitude record by a massive 33%, achieving a height of 830m.