The 2026 ranking edition of the leading global platform, Research.com, places three of the researchers of the North-West University (NWU) among the best scientists in the field of psychology.
The inclusion of Prof. Ian Rothmann and extraordinary professors Prof. Bouwien Smits-Engelsman and Prof. Linda Theron in the list underscores the impact of the NWU on psychological research.
A moment of reflection for Prof. Rothmann
Prof. Rothmann says the recognition is a moment of reflection for him. “It represents a long career that began with trying to understand how work affects people’s capabilities and well-being in the South African context.”
His early studies on stress, burnout, job demands and resources, and even suicide ideation, in different occupations revealed the weight of psychological experiences in the workplace.
He emphasises that the impact of his research and an honour such as being included in prestigious rankings is not his alone. “Research is a collaborative endeavour, and I think of this as recognition of a research programme, one built together with exceptional colleagues, postdoctoral fellows and doctoral students at the Optentia Research Unit at the NWU. Their intellectual energy and dedication are inseparable from anything that appears under my name.”
Prof. Rothmann’s contributions span more than two decades. He was one of the founding researchers of the South African Personality Inventory, developed as part of an internationally recognised cross-cultural psychology initiative. His work expanded into flourishing and work engagement, leading to the development of the Flourishing-at-Work Scale, now used internationally. He also contributed to the Qhubekela Phambili unemployment intervention, funded by the Flemish Interuniversity Board.
In recent years, his focus has shifted toward the capability approach, which focuses on not just asking whether people have resources, but whether they genuinely have the freedom and opportunity to use those resources to live and work well. A milestone in this journey is the forthcoming edited volume, Capabilities at Work: The Added Value of the Capability Model for Well-Being and Work, co-edited with Prof. Jac van der Klink of Tilburg University, to be published open access by Cambridge University Press in June 2026.
He is currently engaged in a study on the sustainable employability of Life Orientation teachers across the nine provinces in South Africa, while continuing to develop
psychometric instruments tailored to South African populations. His vision remains clear to build pathways from precariousness to capabilities, integrating social justice and cultural sensitivity into the study of well-being and employability.
“It is genuinely meaningful to be recognised alongside Prof. Smits-Engelsman and Prof. Linda Theron, whose work I deeply respect. Prof. Theron is based at the University of Pretoria, but is still affiliated with the NWU as extraordinary researcher, and I am particularly proud that Prof. Theron was a research professor at the Optentia Research Unit before moving to Pretoria.”
He says he acknowledges the recognition with appreciation and humility. “It is a signal worth noting, but not the measure I reach for when asking whether the work has been worthwhile.”
Prof. Smits-Engelsman: passion beyond recognition
For Prof. Bouwien Smits-Engelsman, an extraordinary researcher at the NWU who was formerly at the University of Cape Town, the ranking came as a surprise. “To me personally, recognition is not a great deal. I enjoy my work, and I have been a curious person since childhood. It is simply my nature.”
Her work in South Africa began 13 years ago, when she moved away from advanced laboratory-based work in brain-behaviour research and kinematics in children with motor disabilities. “Previously, I had access to sophisticated equipment, but when I arrived here, I had only a ruler and a stopwatch. It pushed me back to the basics of what can be done in research.”
She says that challenge sparked a new direction. Running intervention studies for children with motor coordination problems, she noticed that the absence of proper motor performance assessment tools for South Africa with established norms limits finding the children in need of extra support. Over the past eight years, she has developed such tests. “I am thankful that with help from many colleagues, master’s-degree and bachelor students from Africa, Europe and South America, we could do this. There was not a single cent of grant funding – everybody invested their time in the projects,” she explains.
Prof. Smits-Engelsman’s passion for accessible, low-cost solutions for screening and intervention has defined her work since she retired from her university post in Belgium, where retirement is mandatory at 65. “In a way, it motivated me to prove that I am not ‘finished’. I have published more papers after my retirement than before, which is quite satisfying.”
While she says she does not attach much importance to rankings, she acknowledges their value in supporting younger researchers. “Being recognised can make it easier for them to secure funding or publish their work. So, while it does not benefit me directly, it does help me support others.”
“It is good to know that psychology research that seeks to make a difference in the lives of South Africans with experiences of hardship is valued. This is the ongoing imperative of the resilience research that I am involved in,” says Prof. Theron.
“I am honoured to be an extraordinary professor in Optentia and to use the growing understanding of what supports people with high stress exposure to experience resilience (the focus of my research) to advance how society, industry and government can create the conditions that young people need to thrive.”
The recognition of Prof. Rothmann, Prof. Smits-Engelsman and Prof. Theron highlights the breadth of the contributions made by the NWU to psychology. These researchers emphasise that their work is collaborative, context-driven and motivated by a desire to make a meaningful difference.
Prof. Ian Rothmann
Prof.Linda Theron
Prof. Bouwien Smits-Engelsman
