Annual Report - University of Namibia

FACULTY OF SCIENCEDean: Prof Enos KiremireFACULTY OF SCIENCECognizant of the importancethat science plays in thedevelopment of any nation,the Faculty of Scienceat UNAM is committed to producinggraduates who are not only highlyqualifi ed, but who also contribute to ahighly competent scientifi c human powercapable of attaining the self reliance andeconomic development which Namibiahas set for itself by the year 2030.The Faculty of Science remained home tomany students as it continued to providecross teaching to students from facultiessuch as Education, Health Sciences,Agriculture and Natural Resources, andEngineering and Information Technologyas well as students studying through theCentre for External Studies.The Faculty continued to intensify itscollaboration with many universities andinstitutions world-wide. These include theUniversity of Florida, Rhodes University,University of Pretoria, Case Western ReserveUniversity, Eduardo Mondlane University inMozambique, University of Prince EdwardIsland, University of Hamburg, FreibergUniversity, the University of Cape Town, theUniversity of California in San Francisco,the University of Nairobi, and the AtomicEnergy Agency, among others.Academic ActivitiesThe main academic activities during theperiod under review were centred onteaching of undergraduate programmes.Nevertheless, post-graduate programmeswhich involve both course work andresearch were conducted in theDepartments of Biological Sciences,Chemistry, Biochemistry and ComputerScience. Some post-graduate trainingby research work only was done in thedepartments of Physics and Geology.The Founding Father of the Nation and theChancellor of the University of Namibia, HisExcellency, Dr. Sam Nujoma, graduatedwith a Masters Degree in Geology. Thesame department also introduced a newsingle major programme as well as sevennew courses.The department of Computer Sciencecontinued to offer two remarkableprogrammes namely, eLearning andCISCO. The Statistics Department designeda Diploma in Applied Statistics which willhave its fi rst intake in 2010. The departmentof Physics continued to participate in theHigh Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS)project. HESS is located in the GamsbergMountains of Namibia and is one of themost important astronomical observatoryAnnual Report 2009 -42-