Singing in the rain

■ Jamie and Rosemary Cripwell, a couple from Stellenbosch, toiled together for a few years and now they’re obtaining their doctorates in the same week at Stellenbosch University (SU)’s March 2017 graduation.
Jamie received his Doctorate in chemical engineering on Wednesday March 15 at SU’s second graduation ceremony, while Rosemary was awarded her PhD in microbiology on Thursday March 16. At the same ceremony, degrees were also awarded to students in the Faculties of Theology and Engineering.
Jamie and Rosemary’s PhDs are among the 140 new doctorates awarded last week and, together with those awarded in December, it will bring the number of doctorates for the 2016 academic year to 278 (in comparison with 2015’s 267).
“It is great that we are receiving our doctorates in the same week. This was also one of the reasons we decided to complete them at the same time. We helped and mutually inspired each other,” says Jamie. He speaks highly of his wife Rosemary, who he says encouraged him to do his doctorate. Originally from Johannesburg, the couple met at the University of the Witwatersrand. They also did their Master’s degrees together. Jamie will do post-doctoral research at SU, and says he plans to publish two articles on his PhD in addition to the two that have already been published.