Contributions To The Scientific Community
Friedel Sellschop is remembered as an innovative and visionary scientific leader. He contributed both to his University and country. From 1959 to 1988, Sellschop served as the University of Witwatersrand's chair of Nuclear Physics, the first person to hold such a chair in all of South Africa. In this capacity, as a young man, he began from nothing and developed a significant nuclear physics laboratory and research department. He was therefore the founding Director of the Nuclear Physics Research Unit at the University of Witwatersrand in 1956. This laboratory was later renamed the Schonland Centre for Nuclear Sciences. In 2005, the Schonland Centre was donated to the state to be run as a National Facility by iThemba LABS.
Sellschop was Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of the Witwatersrand from 1979 to 1983. He subsequently became Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) from 1984 to 1996. In this position, from which he retired, Sellschop assisted in creating funding policies and procedures that would ensure transparency in awarding research money.
A list of some of his positions in service to the community follow
- Special Advisor to the Minister, Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology 1994-1998
- South African Association for the Advancement of Science, Member of Council 1958-2002, Executive President 1970-1972
- Joint Council of Scientific Societies of South Africa, President 1971-1972 Vice-President 1991-1993 President 1993-1995, Past-President (on the Council) 1995-2002
- South African Institute of Physics, President 1995–1997, Honorary membership 1998 on.
- Associated Scientific & Technical Societies of South Africa, Controlling Executive 1958-2002, Senior Vice-President 1996, President 1997/8
- The Royal Society of South Africa, Member of the Council 1994-2002, Vice-President, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, President (Transvaal Branch) 1994, President 1999–2002
- National Advisory Council on Innovation, Appointed by the Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology,1998-2002.
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