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| August 2006 |
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Radiating KnowledgeDi Caelers
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Picture: courtesy CSIR |
Freda van Wyngaardt is one of only two people in all of South Africa who are working to maintain standards in respect of radioactivity.
Her field is highly scientific, and to get her work explained in layman's
terms isn't easy - until she points out that most of the work she does deals
with ensuring that highly specialised medical equipment works as efficiently as
possible.
Effectively, Van Wyngaardt explains, the correct radiation dose in the
treatment of disease such as brain or throat cancer could make the difference
between someone getting well, or at worst, losing their life.
Van Wyngaardt works out of an office in the shadow of Table Mountain that housed
horses some 103 years ago. But today, it is the National Metrology Laboratory,
and home to a woman determined to push the boundaries of science, especially if
it means finding more simple solutions.
Her full title is research and development metrologist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the single largest research organisation on the entire African continent.
She is currently doing a PhD (doctoral degree) via which she hopes to
resolve an existing problem in the measuring process essential to her work.
What's needed is a technique to solve the issue, and that's exactly what
she's planning to do.
Van Wyngaardt's laboratory provides standards for the precise calibration of
instrumentation used in nuclear medicine, radioactivity for sale and export,
monitoring of radioactive pollution and contamination, along with being
involved in nuclear physics research.
And all this, she says, is extremely important in South Africa where the
standards to which she is committed have no legal standing - as yet.
Luckily, she says, the users are generally responsible, and most seek the
necessary help to ensure standards are maintained. "The issue around
radioactivity can be emotive, because people are basically afraid of what they
cannot see. But the good news is that for suppliers (of nuclear medical
equipment) there are a lot of international rules by which
they have to abide," Van Wyngaardt says.
Van Wyngaardt is proud of the fact that in the history of South Africa, she
is the first woman to work in this field, but she remains modest in spite of
having been awarded a research fellowship at the Women in Science Awards of the
Department of Science and Technology in 2004.
She has also published 11 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and has recently
co-authored a paper that has been accepted for publication in the
prestigious journal, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research.
The only thing, Van Wyngaardt jokes, that isn't going right in her life is
her fitness regime, which has been dealt a blow by her work commitment.
She has already earned six Comrades Marathon medals, and has her eye set
firmly on getting a permanent number once she runs her 10th race. But for
now, that will have to wait as she makes her mark as a pioneer in her field.
More information:
* The
work of the CSIR's women scientists will be among those on display at the second
South African International Science, Innovation and Technology Exhibition (INSITE)
at the Sandton Convention Centre from September 24 to 27. Hosted by the
Department of Science and Technology, the exhibition will bring together some of
the world's most innovative minds and cutting-edge projects in science,
technology and innovation. For more information, call Cebisa Mfenyana at Kagiso
Exhibitions 011 661 4062 or email insite@kagisoexpo.co.za.
The website is www.insitex.co.za
* South Africa even has its own nuclear medicine research laboratory,
pharmacy and hospital, which treats cancer patients at iThemba Laboratory
for Accelerator Based Sciences in Somerset West in the Western Cape. iThemba.
LABS also supplies highly specialised radioactive medicine for doctors and
hospitals treating cancer patients across Africa. For more information about
their work, tours or outreach efforts, check out www.tlabs.ac.za
or email Ginny Stone at Stone@tlabs.ac.za
for more information. Di Caelers is the health writer for The Argus, the daily
afternoon. English-language newspaper in the Western Cape in South Africa. This
article originally appeared on August 8, 2006. For more info, go to www.capeargus.co.za
Copyright Science in Africa, Science magazine for Africa CC. All Rights Reserved
