News, 8 May 2018
By Marina Joubert
The recent news that my colleague Nelius Boshoff has been promoted to the level of associate professor was an excellent reason for celebrating and a good excuse to find out more about his work and life interests. We set off to Binnehof, a cozy little Stellenbosch restaurant on a lovely, rainy day.
While Nelius values the promotion as a significant milestone in his research career, he also sees it as a catalyst that will help him to achieve future work goals. “A title on its own is no guarantee of success,” he says, “but it can open doors”. He is particularly keen to extend his research networks in African countries.
To get somewhere in academic life, it is not enough to do lots of research, he believes. “It is about doing excellent research that earns international recognition and helps to shape the field you are working in.” To achieve this, he says, researchers need to keep a close eye on academic trends and must be able to anticipate future developments.
Nelius has carved a career as a social science researcher with a multi-disciplinary perspective, with research projects focusing on fields such as health, agriculture and higher education. “In essence, I do research about research,” he explains. “I look at what happens to research once it is published, including how it interacts with society and other key interest groups, including researchers themselves.” In particular, Nelius is passionate about the research impact debate, describing it as “exciting and dynamic”.
“I don’t want to be labelled as a social scientist,” he says. For him, social science is a tool to explore research across all disciplines. He believes that it is important to keep an open mind, embrace change and grab opportunities that come your way. “That is why I tell students that it could be a blessing in disguise if you don’t find a job in the specific field you trained for.”
Being a science communication researcher myself, I could not resist asking him about his views on public science engagement. He agrees that researchers should strive to make their work accessible to public audiences, but he is adamant that this can only be effective if such public communication is based on solid, peer-reviewed research. “Good research must be communicated,” he says, “not just any research”.
Nelius enjoys the creative side of doing research and particularly writing academic articles. “For me, the writing process is an opportunity to create meaning from my work,” he adds. “Even when writing up a literature review, it is not about recycling old knowledge, but rather about contributing new insights.”
Finding time to do so is a challenge, but he also enjoys popular creative writing. To date, 18 of his short stories – most of them with a sombre twist – have been published in popular magazines. When asked about what motivates him to write popular stories in his free time, he simply explains that he does not have much choice. “Stories come to me and demand to be written!”
When he is not working or writing, Nelius tries to get to the gym at least twice a week. His other hobbies include exploring new music genres on YouTube and going to the cinema. “I love a proper cinema with a big screen and enjoy all types of movies, from braindead action movies to challenging arthouse productions.”
