Johannes Dewald Roode (July 16, 1940 – Sept 27, 2009) was a South African academic and Professor at the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria (, ) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and ''de facto'' capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 as the Pretoria campus of the Johan ...

, specializing in

Information Systems An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems comprise four components: task, people, structu ...

research.

Biography

Dewald Roode received a B.A. in

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...

, an M.A. in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

from the

University of Potchefstroom The Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (abbreviated as PU for CHE) was a South African university located in Potchefstroom. Instruction was mainly in Afrikaans. In 2004, the university was merged with other institutions to cr ...

in South Africa, another in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

from the same institute, and a PhD in

operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...

under the supervision of Guus Zoutendijk at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

. In 1988 Roode was appointed to head the new Department of

Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems. According to the Association for Computing Machinery, ACM Europe Council and Informatics Europe, informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which the centra ...

at the

, while continuing on a part-time basis with consultancy work. Within five years of starting, the Department of Informatics at the

was internationally known, and welcomed a regular stream of international visitors who contributed tremendously to the continued development of the Department. After his early retirement in 2001, Roode was a visiting professor in the Department of

at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

from 2003 till his death in 2009, and also at the

Cape Peninsula University of Technology Cape Peninsula University of Technology () is a university in Cape Town, South Africa. It is the only university of technology in the Western Cape province, and is also the largest university in the province, with over 32,000 students. It was ...

since 2004. Apart from his continued academic involvement with various universities, he completed a six-year term in 2007 as chair of Technical Committee 8 on Information Systems of the

International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 19 ...

(IFIP), and was a member of the Steering Committee of IFIP’s World Information Technology Forum in

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

in 2003 and in

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

in 2005. In 2008, he developed and presented a series of 14 seminars on research and innovation core skills for the South African

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...

(CSIR). Roode supervised more than 30 doctoral students to completion. He was the recipient of the 2008 Association for Information Systems

Leo Award The Leo Awards are the awards program for the British Columbia film and television industry. Held each May or June in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the Leo Awards were founded by the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of British C ...

for exceptional lifetime achievement in the Information Systems discipline. In 2008 Dewald Roode was also honoured by the

(IFIP) with the highest accolade for service, the Silver Core.

Work

His work embraced

antipositivism In social science, antipositivism (also interpretivism, negativism or antinaturalism) is a theoretical stance which proposes that the social realm cannot be studied with the methods of investigation utilized within the natural sciences, and th ...

since the positivist paradigm had failed to embrace the complexities inherent in

africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n academic research. To share his insight, Roode exercised an early retirement option from the

in 2001 enabling him to work at different universities, and to devote more time to the high-level training of individuals in the

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

industry who had not had the opportunity to receive formal tertiary education. He published widely on the sociotechno divide in society and more broadly on the Information Systems discipline.A framework for understanding the emerging discipline of information systems
2002. Accessed June 2, 2009

Publications, a selection

* 1968. ''Generalized Lagrangian functions in mathematical programming'' * 1972. ''Modelle, rekenaars en werklikheid'' * 2008. ''Advances in Information Systems Research, Education and Practice: Ifip 20th World Computer Congress, Tc 8, Information Systems, September 7–10, 2008, Milano, Italy''. David Avison, George M. Kasper, Barbara Pernici, Isabel Ramos, Dewald Roode. Springer, 2008.

References

External links

Dewald Roode, 2008 LEO Winner
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roode, Dewald 1940 births 2009 deaths Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent South African social scientists South African computer scientists Information systems researchers Academic staff of the University of Pretoria

Biography

Work

See also

Publications, a selection

References

External links