The Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award is awarded annually by the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust. It is considered the top award for research on the African continent.
In Memory of Harry Oppenheimer
The Award was created in 2001, in South Africa, by the Trustees of the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, itself established in 1958 by Harry Oppenheimer in memory of his father, Sir Ernest Oppenheimer. The philanthropic vision of the once-richest man in the world is embedded within three foundations:
The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust funds and encourages science, the arts and the search for knowledge, through various grants and initiatives, and awards Africa's premier research prize, the Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award.
The Brenthurst Library which houses one of the largest collections of rare Africana in the world and the celebrated transcripts of Nelson Mandela's trials.
How the Fellowship Award is bestowed
Awardees are leading scholars who have a sustained record of outstanding research and intellectual achievement at the highest level. They must have demonstrated a capacity for and a commitment to knowledge transfer to their fellow citizens. Up to now the Award has only been presented to South Africans or South Africa-based academics. The Award is made by a select committee and approved by the Trustees in December of each year. The Secretary General of the Academy of Science of South Africa chairs the selection proceedings. The remittance ceremony takes place in April following the year of the Award, at the Oppenheimers’ residence, Brenthurst, in Johannesburg. The Award is bestowed by Mrs. Harry Oppenheimer.
2015: Jointly awarded to Brenda Wingfield, Professor of Genetics, University of Pretoria and Xolela Mangcu, professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town
2012: Awarded Robin Crewe, Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria for his work on bees
2011: Les Underhill, Director of the Animal Demography Unit at the University of Cape Town. He will use the funds to continue a lifelong project entitled "Building early warning systems for Biodiversity in South Africa".
2009: Jill Farrant, who holds the research chair in the molecular physiology of plant desiccation tolerance at the University of Cape Town and who is investigating the properties of the mostly South African drought-resistant "resurrection plants". She will use the award funds to allow her to work with Professor Felix Keller of the University of Zurich's Institute of Plant Biology and with Doctor Francesco Loreto of Italy's Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche who investigates minuscule lipid "volatiles" .
2007: Jointly awarded to Jeff Guy South African History Project and Winston Hide. Jeff Guy is a leading historian of traditional Africanism. Winston Hide is a leader in stem cells research in relation to recurrence of cancer in recovered patients.
2005: Norman Owen-Smith , an A-rated scientist in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand Prize was awarded in recognition for his outstanding work in helping to foster an understanding of the dynamics of large mammalian herbivores in changing environments.
2004: Jointly awarded to Igor Barashenkov and Frank Brombacher , Director of the MRC Unit for Immunology of Infectious Diseases in the IIDMM, University of Cape Town.
2003: No award presented.
2002: Jan-Hendrik S. Hofmeyr of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Stellenbosch, for his pioneering work on the organization and behaviour of the living cell.
2001: David Glasser of the School of Process and Material Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand was the first recipient of the award.
