The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s selection committee has recently awarded Dr Brews Soyapi, a senior lecturer at the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Law, a Georg Forster Research Fellowship for postdoctoral research.

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation grants research fellowships to scientists and scholars from abroad with above-average qualifications to sponsor long-term research stays at research institutions in Germany. The purpose of the research fellowships is to carry out proposed research, chosen by the research fellows themselves, in cooperation with an academic host who must provide the necessary research facilities at the host institute and act as a mentor during the research stay.                         

Dr Soyapi will be stationed at the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg.

“For an academic, this is a validation – your work has gone through international academic scrutiny and has passed muster. For me this also signifies growth, as l am slowly moving out of the shadows of doctoral studies, which is often daunting. I hope this award will help launch an elaborate international networking experience which l can tap into in future,” says Dr Soyapi.

More about the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation links Germany to the knowledge of the world. In the global competition for the topmost experts, it offers to this end various programmes to attract scientists and scholars at different stages of their careers.

Support involves both funding and personal support in all matters relating to a stay in Germany and to subsequent cooperations. For these cooperations, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation offers numerous other kinds of sponsorship in the framework of the alumni programme. In this way, this active international network has grown to include more than 30 000 academics since the foundation was founded in 1953.

Dr Brews Soyapi.