Establishment of “The South African Bioinformatics Student Council” and Activity Highlights

Authors

  • Candice Nancy Rafael Rhodes University
  • Jon Ambler University of Cape Town
  • Antoinette Niehaus Stellenbosch University
  • James Ross University of Pretoria
  • Ozlem Tastan Bishop Rhodes University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14806/ej.23.0.903

Keywords:

Student Council, SASBi, bioinformatics, congress, education, skill development, community engagement, networking

Abstract

The South African Bioinformatics Student Council (SASBiSC) in bioinformatics has been set up to increase the visibility of bioinformatics as well as to filter information to students within the field regarding job, funding and workshop opportunities as they arise. This is a short description of the process of setting up a national Student Council for Bioinformatics in South Africa, affiliating to the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). We also report two examples of activities that were carried out over the last two years that are: 1) participation in the SciFest Africa; and 2) the organisation of the first Bioinformatics Student Symposium.  We hope that our experience and methods for the creation of SASBiSC and of collaborative communities can be useful to others who might want to do the same.

Author Biographies

  • Candice Nancy Rafael, Rhodes University

    PhD Candidate

    Research Unit in Bioinfomatics (RUBi) 

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

    Rhodes University 

  • Jon Ambler, University of Cape Town

    Computational Biology Group, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa

  • Antoinette Niehaus, Stellenbosch University

    Centre of Excellence for Biomedical Tuberculosis Research/SA MRC Centre for Tuberculosis Research, Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Tygerberg, South Africa 

  • James Ross, University of Pretoria
    Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Department of Genetics, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
  • Ozlem Tastan Bishop, Rhodes University

    Research Unit in Bioinformatics (RUBi), Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rhodes University, P.O. Box 94,Grahamstown 6140, South Africa

Symposium group photo

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Published

2018-02-02

Issue

Vol. 23

Section

Technical Notes

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