ASSAf was inaugurated in May 1996, with the mission of using science to benefit our society. The main aim of ASSAf is to honour our country's most outstanding scholars by electing them. Members of the Academy are elected from all scientific disciplines. Professor Emese Bordy has made history as one of the two geologist professors that are women in the academy. In addition, she is one of the nine UCT academics that were elected this year. Read more here.

Professor Bordy has been a part of our Department since 2011. Her research is at the intersection of sedimentology and palaeontology in Africa. Currently, she is teaching first and third year and Honours students. Professor Bordy is very passionate about teaching and serving those she teaches, well. It shouldn't come as a surprise then that she got this honour from ASSAf! It is indeed well deserved and as the Geological Science Department, we are immensely proud!

The year may be coming to an end, but it seems Professor Bordy is only starting! Not only is she serving at ASSAf, but she also just started as the Deputy Dean of Science as of 01 November 2024! Professor Bordy said, “This accolade comes as I step into my new role as deputy dean in the Faculty of Science at UCT, thus firmly opening a chapter of my life in which I serve even more my immediate scientific community of students and colleagues and the broader community of both extant and extinct organisms in my orbit."

She expressed her desire to serve all, using the perspective she has gained from studying the Earth Sciences and its stories.