Notable Mathematicians and Astronomers who were members  of the department

Prof. S. Skewes (1899–1988)

Stanley Skewes born in Germiston in1899 and was a South African mathematician, best known for his discovery of the Skewes's number in 1933. He was one of John Edensor Littlewood's students at Cambridge University. Skewes's numbers contributed to the refinement of the theory of prime numbers.

Prof. W. de Sitter (1872-1934)

Prof. Willem de Sitter was born in Sneek in 1872, Netherlands, de Sitter studied mathematics at the University of Groningen and then joined the Groningen astronomical laboratory. He worked at the Cape Observatory in South Africa (1897–1899) and was an associate of the department when Unisa was known as University of the Cape of Good Hope from 1873 to 1916 located in Cape Town. Then, in 1908, De Sitter was appointed to the chair of astronomy at Leiden University. He was director of the Leiden Observatory from 1919 until his death.

Prof JH van der Merwe (1922 - 2016)

Prof. Johannes Hendrik van der Merwe obtained his PhD in 1949. He was a South African mathematician and physicist renowned as the "Father of Epitaxy." He co-developed the Frank–Van der Merwe crystal growth model, foundational in semiconductor and communication technology. Over his career, he held academic posts at leading South African universities, published over 85 papers, and received numerous honors, including the Havenga Prize, the De Beers Gold Medal, and The Order of Meritorious Service (Gold Class).

Professor K. Swanepoel 

Professor Konrad Swanepoel obtained his PhD in Mathematics in 1997 from the University of Pretoria. After teaching at the University of Pretoria and the University of South Africa, he spent two years in Germany at the Chemnitz University of Technology before coming to the LSE in 2009. He does research in Combinatorial and discrete geometry, convex geometry and the geometry of normed spaces, shortest geometric networks. 

Prof. N. T. Bishop

Nigel Tempest Bishop born 11 September 1951 and he is a British-South African mathematical physicist and emeritus professor specializing in general relativity, numerical relativity, and gravitational wave extraction techniques. Bishop earned his BA and MA from the University of Cambridge in 1973 and 1977, respectively, followed by a PhD in gravitation theory and cosmology from the University of Southampton in 1977, with a thesis titled "A trip through gravitation theory" supervised by P. T. Landsberg. His academic career includes positions as lecturer and senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand (1976–1985), associate professor there (1986–1991), professor at the University of South Africa (1992–2009) where he directed the Research Centre for Computational Relativity, Astrophysics and Cosmology (2007–2009), and professor and head of the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at Rhodes University (2009–2016). He retired in 2016 but continues research as emeritus professor, leading a National Research Foundation-funded project on gravitational wave interactions with matter and astrophysical applications

Prof. L.E. Labuschagne

Prof. Louis Ernst Labuschagne was born on August 4, 1960 in Pretoria, South Africa. He obtained his PhD in 1988 in the field of Single Linear Operator theory. He started his professional academic career in the same year at Stellenbosch University, moving to the University of Pretoria in 1992. This move also coincided with a shift in his research focus to Operator Algebras and their application to Quantum Theory. After spending 19 years in Pretoria, first at the University of Pretoria and then University of South Africa from 2001, he took up an appointment at Northwest University in January 2011, where he currently serves as the director of the Focus Area for Pure and Applied Analytics.

Prof M. Frick

Prof Marietjie Frick is now Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria. She obtained her PhD in 1986 with title Generalized Colourings of Graphs. She does research in longest paths and cycles in graphs, vertex partition problems, local properties of graphs.

Prof. J.D. Botha

Prof. Johannes D. Botha has been a member of the department from a young age since the early 70’s. He obtained His Doctor of Science degree by publication. Doctor of Science (D.Sc./Sc.D.) is often a higher doctorate awarded for a substantial body of published scientific work is much higher than a normal PhD degree and a few obtained their doctoral degree this way. He is now retired. His main research was centered around Matrix Theory and Linear Algebra. Specifically in the area of the factorization of matrices over an arbitrary field, the additive combination of special matrices, and matrices over finite fields.

Prof. Y. Hardy

Prof. Yorick Hardy obtained his PhD in 2005 from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) previously known and Rand Afrikaanse Universiteit, under the renowned Mathematician, Prof. W.-H. STEEB. Yorick's research interests broadly concern the tensor product and Kronecker product, multi-linear algebra, and algebraic structures for the study of tensor decompositions. Initially, this research considered separability and entanglement and its applications in quantum information theory. Current research primarily concerns Kronecker quotients, and related questions, as examples of algebraic structures for tensor decompositions.  Previous affiliations of Yorick Hardy include University of Johannesburg & University of the Witwatersrand.

Prof. Johannes Heidema (Deceased)

Johannes Heidema obtained his PhD in 1967 from Potchefstroomse Universiteit vir Christelike Hoër Onderwys (Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education) now known as North-West University. His PhD Thesis is “On Metamathematical Ideals”. He was Professor of Mathematics in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of South Africa. His research interests include the history and philosophy of Logic and Mathematics and of science in general. He worked on Graph Theory, Applied Logic, and in particular on the nature of cognitive agents and their reasoning with defeasible logics for generating and changing knowledge and beliefs. During the time of his passing in 2020, he was the Emeritus Professor at Unisa.

Prof T. Dube

Prof Themba Dube is now retired. He obtained his PhD in 1993 and was a Professor of Mathematics at the University of South Africa. He has served at the managerial level as Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs at Zululand University. He does research in Topology and Commutative Rings and in particular; Pointset topology, Nearness and Uniform Spaces, Para compactness in structured Frames. Prof Dube holds a B3 National Research Foundation rating and in 2013, he received the most prestigious award from the South African Mathematical Society (SAMS) for Research Distinction. In 2016, he was appointed by the said organisation to be the editor-in-chief of its accredited and ISI-listed journal called Quaestiones Mathematicae. Incidentally, he is the first person of colour to edit this journal in its history. In 2010, Dube received the Unisa Principal’s Award for Research, while in 2013 and 2017 he received the Unisa Chancellor’s Award for Research. He has now been nominated for the 2019-2020 NSTF-South32 Awards.

Dr. J. Wolterbeek

Dr. Wolterbeek was born in the Hague, Netherlands, on 27 April 1930. He went to school in the Hague, matriculating in July 1948. He continued his studies at Leiden University where he obtained his BSc (or Candidates as it is known there) in 1952 majoring in Mathematics and Astronomy, and then registered for an MSc in Astronomy. For the practical part of these studies he worked under Prof van der Hulst on the 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen, and he spent from September to November 1955 studying double stars in Toulouse, France. Wolterbeek was awarded his MSc (or Doctorandus) and a Mathematics Teaching Diploma (for High School) in December 1956. From April 1957 to January 1959 he was conscripted into NATO's Signal Corp in the Netherlands. He joined the Leiden Observatory on 15 January 1959, moving to the Leiden Southern Station at Broederstroom (near Hartebeestpoort Dam) in May of that year, and then to Unisa in early 1960. On 1 October 1960 he was appointed to a full-time post of Lecturer in Astronomy within the Department of Mathematics at Unisa. Wolterbeek was promoted to Senior Lecturer in September 1991.

Dr. P. D. Bennewith

A second full-time astronomy lecturer, Dr Peter D Bennewith from University College, London, started at Unisa on 1 February 1975. He immediately set about upgrading the 2nd and 3rd year courses by including more astrophysics in the syllabus. Bennewith also introduced an Honours paper in Astrophysics in 1976.

Dr. B. Cunow

Dr Barbara Cunow joined the astronomy section of the Maths Department from July 1994 to January 1995 as a temporary lecturer. From May to November 1995 Cunow again visited the department, this time on a scholarship for her senior Doctorate, which was financed by the Ministerium fuer Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. She obtained her Diplom in Physics from Muenster University in 1989, and her PhD in Astronomy from the same university in 1994, her thesis dealing with the photometry of galaxies. In January 1996 Cunow was appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Astronomy to replace Wolterbeek, who had retired.

Dr. W.F. Wargau

Walter Freidrich Wargau (1948-1996) died in Schwabach, Germany on 6 November 1996. He had attended an astronomical conference in the UK, and was visiting family and post-graduate students in Germany when he was taken critically ill as a result of chronic active hepatitis which he had contracted in 1978. His position was filled by Dr Derck P Smits, from HartRAO, who took up a post of Associate Professor on 2 Feb 1998.

Prof. D. Smits

Prof. Derck Smits was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1954, and obtained his PhD in 1990. He was a Professor of Astronomy in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of South Africa from Feb 1998 up to Dec 2019, after which he retired. Prior to this, he has been a researcher at Hartebeest Hoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (May 1990 - Jan 1998), and a geomagnetist on the SA National Antarctic Expedition 20 in 1979.