Dr Hester E Oosthuizen

e-mail: hester.oos@mweb.co.za

Since 2008 I have been working at the South African Nuclear Energy Cooperation (Necsa) as scientific writing consultant helping young researchers (chemists) on a one-to-one basis, with the writing of publications and dissertations. Initially it was thought that English, which is a second anguage for many of the researchers at Necsa, posed a problem. However I very soon realised that the young researchers did not realise the requirements of the different parts of the dissertation or article and often struggled with formulating a good scientific argument. During this period I also lectured a Technical Report Writing course to chemical engineering students at the Unit for Academic Literacy (University of Pretoria) and Technical and Scientific Writing workshops as part of Reach Africa’s mentoring programs.

I have been scientifically prepared for this stimulating career by first being a researcher myself. I obtained my B.Sc, B.Sc (Hons), M.Sc, and PhD degrees in chemistry at the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU, now the University of Johannesburg, UJ). I worked for seven years at the National Chemical Research Laboratory (NCRL) at the CSIR where I carried out research on isocyanide complexes of ruthenium resulting in 23 publications between 1978 and 1985.

My career between 1984 and 2008 comprised of teaching and rearing children. I obtained a Higher Education Diploma (HED) (Postgraduate) at UNISA in 1989 and was a lecturer in chemistry at the College of Education for Further Training (CEFT, later SACTE), the Centre for the Improvement of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, UNISA, and TUT (Technology Access Program). As a lecturer I was not only involved in teaching but was also responsible for writing study material. I also taught Physical Science at Kentron College and Cornerstone College.

I am happily married to a civil engineer and together we have three children of which our eldest son is an industrial engineer, our second son recently obtained his M. Mus degree and our daughter is a Foundation Phase teacher.

I have also successfully completed the course as Assessor in 2004, did a Basic Accounting and Pastel course in 2002, and obtained Grade 8 (piano). I like classical music, gardening, and hiking in the mountains.