Wiesner Vos
Paul Roos Gymnasium, 2000
DPhil Applied Statistics
Brasenose College
Currently studying at Oxford
My name is Wiesner Vos. I attended primary schools in Pretoria and Somerset West before enrolling as a student at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch. During my high school years I served as a lifesaver and lifesaving instructor for the Sea and Sand Institute during school holidays. Paul Roos Gymnasium has a proud sporting history and I inevitably became a keen rugby and cricket player during my high school years. I became aware of the Rhodes Scholarship through annual Rhodes Day events at Paul Roos, it being one of the four South African Schools awarding the Scholarship. After completing a MSc degree in Mathematical Statistics at the University of Stellenbosch, I successfully applied for the Paul Roos Rhodes Scholarship. I am proud to be a Paul Roos Gymnasium Rhodes Scholar, but I am also aware of the need to make school scholarships more accessible to the wider community. I believe such an initiative should be initiated by the schools. They should not see changes in they way they award scholarships as a threat, but rather an opportunity to make a positive contribution to education in their wider communities.
I am currently employed as a Departmental Lecturer in Statistics at the Department of Statistics in Oxford, and I am in the final stages of my DPhil in applied statistics. My DPhil project is a collaboration between Roche Pharmaceuticals and the Department of Statistics. It involves the development of statistical methods for the analysis of large datasets that result from high-throughput gene screening methods in pharmaceutical research. In my experience Oxford provides research students with considerable freedom to explore their own ideas. You will not only be presented with some of the greatest academic challenges that you ever have faced, but you will also learn how to deal with frustration when things are not going so well. However, the intellectual stimulation and satisfaction that you will experience as a research student will make you time in Oxford a memorable and extremely enriching experience.
My time in Oxford has made me more committed to make a positive contribution to the development of both South Africa and Africa than ever before. I am not exactly sure in what way I want to contribute yet. However, I am currently considering involvement in African initiatives that promote the development of science in Africa, such as the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. I would also like to become involved in bioinformatics research in South Africa in some way.