VICE CHANCELLOR’S RESEARCH AWARDS Professor Liezel Cilliers Faculty of Management and Commerce Department: Information Systems NRF Rating category: C3 Professor Liezel Cilliers’ research interests focus on electronic health with specific reference to electronic health records, health applications and health information found on social media. Her research on information disseminated using social media during Covid-19 pandemic, much of which was misleading or even false, has resulted in ‘infodemics’ becoming a major research focus for the future. Professor Cilliers is currently the Acting Dean of Management and Commerce. Originally qualified as a physiotherapist, Professor Cilliers was Head of the Department of Physiotherapy at both both Frere and Cecilia Makiwane hospitals before taking up a position in the Department of Information Systems at the University of Fort Hare (UFH). Her doctoral degree in Information Systems was awarded by Fort Hare in 2014. Professor Leon van Niekerk Faculty of Health Sciences Department of Human Movement Science NRF Rating category: C2 Prof. Leon van Niekerk completed his PhD in Psychology (2006) at the University of Johannesburg and a European Masters in Sport and Exercise Psychology (2007) at the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium. He is a registered Counselling Psychologist and specializes in Sport Psychology. He assisted numerous national and International athletes in sports such as golf, squash, football, rugby, Olympic- and Paralympic athletes, swimmers, cricket players and teams such as our national life-saving teams, national acro-tumbling team, SA Proteas netball team, Bafana-Bafana, Lions u/18 team, and sports teams of numerous schools, universities and clubs since 2000. Prof Leon teach Sport Psychology and Research Methodology to undergraduate and post-graduate students in HMS since 2015 at the University of Fort Hare. He published numerous peer reviewed articles in national and international journals and wrote various chapters in academic books. His current research interests are in the psychological well-being of athletes, including topics such as sexual abuse in sport, the development of mental toughness, the development of sport identity and life roles, burnout, stress and anxiety among athletes, the effectiveness of mindfulness during competition, mental health in sport and the psychological health benefits of exercise. Dr Yeshona Sukai Fort Hare Institute of Technology NRF Rating category: Y2 Dr. Yeshona Sukai is a senior researcher in the Bioenergy Research Group at the Fort Hare Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on industrial waste valorisation for the production of biofuels and bioproducts using microbial fermentation processes. Before joining the University of Fort Hare, Dr Sukai was a postdoctoral fellow in the Microbiology and Chemical Engineering Departments at the University of KwaZulu- Natal (UKZN) where she also completed her Bachelor of Science, Master of Science and doctoral degrees. Research Report 2021/2022 | 76