MY STORY
​​​​"The word 'surgor' is a derived form of the latin word surgo, which means rise, get up, arise, raise, lift up and grow. I started surgor out of a desire to rise above the negative issues that so frequently characterise the academic landscape, and take to heart 1 Thess 5:11: ''Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.'. The goal is to do research in an authentic, inclusive, supportive, and community focussed manner, and to encourage and help empower young minds to reach their potential, become creative problem solvers, strive for excellence and give back with purpose to society.
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Although I have a main research focus, I've always been a bit too curious and multi-dimensional in my approach to remain within a defined box. I connect concepts from various fields, and integrate them in my approach to research, teaching and supervision. I love new ideas, new metaphors for communicating them, and building bridges between the new and the old. As Albert Einstein once said: 'Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will get you everywhere'."
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- Linke Potgieter, Associate Professor, Stellenbosch University, SCOPUS Profile -
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ALUMNI
Thloni Mhango
​​"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us." - Marriane Williamson
Chanwyn Williams
HonsBCom (Operations Research) - 2013
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Heléne Delport
HonsBCom (Operations Research) - 2014
​​"Everything you accept as the norm, you will never change." - Suzette Hatting
Kimberly Bailey
HonsBCom (Operations Research) - 2014
​​"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour and some style." - Maya Angelo
Pieter de Wet
HonsBCom (Operations Research) - 2014
"Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability." - Roy L Smith
Dirk Human
HonsBCom (Operations Research) - 2014
"We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction." - Bill Gates
Gillian Toplis
HonsBCom (Quantitative Management) - 2015
​​"Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude." - Denis Waitley
Brian Van Vuuren
​​“It doesn't matter what you do, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.” – Ray Bradbury
Kyle van Heerden
HonsBCom (Operations Research) - 2017
​​“I started my life with a single absolute: that the world was mine to shape in the image of my highest values and never to be given up to a lesser standard, no matter how long or hard the struggle.” - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
Bryce Senekal
"If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." - JK Rowling
Mashoto Maselela
HonsBCom (Operations Research) - 2018
​​"If you FAIL, never give up because FAIL means 'First Attempt In Learning". END is not the end; in fact it means 'Effort Never Dies'. If you get NO for an answer, remember that no means 'Next Opportunity'." - Abdul Kalam
Annelie Wessels
HonsBCom (Quantitative Management) - 2018
"Think big, and your deeds will grow; Think small, and you'll fall behind; Think that you can, and you will— It's all in the state of mind." - Walter D. Wintle
Dean Matter
HonsBCom (Operations Research) - 2019
"Those who leave everything in God's hands eventually see God's hands in everything."
Noé Carème Fouotsa Manfouo
​​"Research is to see what everyone else has seen and to think what nobody else has thought." - Albert Szent.
Michelle de Beer
HonsBCom (Operations Research) - 2020
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt
Samantha Downing
HonsBCom (Operations Research) - 2021
"Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of not succeeding at things in life that really matter." "Let us be eager to leave what is familiar for what is true." - Francis Chan
Philip Prinsloo
MCom (Operations Research) - 2023
​"Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things, with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope. - Corazon Aquino