Meet Bertus van Heerden, a physics doctoral candidate from UP whose research has been hailed by the National Research Foundation as being of “global agricultural importance”. He chats about his research, his love of campus life and what he does on his time off.

Bertus van Heerden likes to learn about things. It’s what drives him: finding out about how things work and how they have an impact on the world.

“I just like learning – though I am not sad that I don’t get to write exams any longer,” he says. “I’ve enjoyed being at university, because you get to learn a lot here. My motivation has always been to learn.”

Fortunately, his passion is paying off. Not only is this University of Pretoria (UP) PhD student notching up citations for articles being published in reputable journals, including one representing an international collaboration he initiated, but he is being recognised for his achievements. His most recent accolade is being one of seven postgraduates countrywide to have been awarded the National Research Foundation (NRF) Research Excellence Award for Next Generation Researchers.

Van Heerden received the award for his interdisciplinary research, which focuses on biophysics. Specifically, he built a real-time single-particle tracking (SPT) experimental set-up during the course of his PhD, which the NRF refers to as “globally unique” and the only such set-up in Africa. He is using the technique to study photoprotection in plants, and while he says its potential impact for agriculture is “very, very relevant”, the NRF believes that it has “global agricultural importance as it can assist in the engineering of crops to maximise output and lower costs”. 

Van Heerden plans to complete his PhD, which he began in 2021, early next year, and has received a Fulbright scholarship to develop his research further. A Fulbright is the US government’s flagship international academic exchange programme. Van Heerden returned to South Africa in May 2023 after a nine-month stint at Washington State University (WSU).

What did he relish the most? The chance to visit the WSU’s Institute of Biological Chemistry; visiting New York, Boston and San Francisco; and attending a conference that impressed him hugely. “It was local, yet it was at a very high level,” he says.

Surprisingly, the experience wasn’t a headlong leap into American culture. While he was based in a small town, called Pullman, the university was big – in fact,  last year, it enrolled 22 612 undergraduates, including international students.

“I was mostly interacting with other graduate students, and most of them are not from the US,” Van Heerden recalls. “There were international students from Belarus, Myanmar, China, Taiwan and Ecuador. That was perhaps the highlight in terms of all the people I met.”

He rightly points out that UP also has lots of international students.

“Half of our biophysics research group in the Physics Department, which is led by Professor Tjaart Krüger and consists of his students and postdocs, is comprised of other African students, so we meet many people from elsewhere in Africa, though not that many from other continents.”

Van Heerden is exceedingly fond of UP. While he grew up in Pretoria, he stayed in res because his father, UP Economics Professor Emeritus Jan van Heerden, advised him to go for at least a year.

“But I liked it,” says Van Heerden, who ended up staying at Sonop for four years. Other than singing the praises of UP’s excellent resources, which helps research thrive, he says: “I love the campus. From the ones I've seen, it's probably one of the more beautiful campuses in the country. I really like being on campus because it's such a lovely environment.”

He also appreciates the gardens and the mix of architecture on campus.

“There are also lots of people and it always feels energetic,” Van Heerden adds. “I was so happy when people started coming back after the pandemic and it was filled with students again. There are a lot of people, yet it’s peaceful because it’s separated from the city. It’s a people-friendly kind of environment.”

He has also being enjoying tutoring eight semesters of various physics and maths courses since 2016. “I like tutoring – of course, marking tests is not fun, but teaching is definitely something I find joy in.”

Van Heerden is not just about work, despite having graduated all his degrees cum laude, and adding extra credits to his BSc and still cracking an 86% average that semester. He has found time for other pursuits too. At school, he did Grade 8 in piano and is considering taking lessons again. “I don’t own a piano or a keyboard, but I miss it,” he says. “If you don’t take lessons, you are not motivated to practise.”

He enjoys mountaineering and long-distance running, and both he and his wife, Imre – a medical doctor who is doing her community service in Mpumalanga – enjoy hiking and travelling. “We want to see the whole country eventually,” he says.

Cooking is the most relaxing pursuit for Van Heerden. “I do most of the cooking. I’m always looking for new recipes. I like Asian cuisine, so I make a lot of Chinese, Japanese and Indian food. And, like everyone, I like pasta. I also like making pizza.”

He believes in giving back too. He volunteers annually at a camp for Afrikaans Christian youth movement the Voortrekkers where they take teenagers hiking and he teaches a bit of astronomy, one of the additional credits he obtained in the final year of his BSc.