A small group of FABIans attended a farewell function for Dr Fahimeh Jami who leaves the Institute after 14 years to join the Agricultural Research Council (ARC). The event was held at the Future Africa Campus providing a beautiful environment with wide-open spaces consistent with COVID-19 protocols. Both Prof. Bernard Slippers, Director of FABI and Prof. Mike Wingfield, FABI Founder Director and Fahimeh’s line manager thanked her for her many important contributions to the Institute. Prof Slippers reflected on Fahimeh’s time in FABI, first as a PhD student and later as a postdoctoral Fellow. He noted that he had been an advisor for her PhD and on the important contributions that she had made to the current understanding of fungal tree pathogens in the Botryosphaeriaceae. Prof Wingfield, who initially brought Fahimeh to South Africa from Iran remarked on how impressively, she had moved from student to an important FABI colleague with an impressive NRF rating and core responsibilities in terms of student mentorship. He shared with the attendees the key role that Fahimeh had played in building the Royal Golden Eagle (RGE - April Group, Indonesia) FABI Tree Health Programme that was now in its third year.  And how important her role has been in building diagnostics capacity for the company as well as mentoring as primary supervisor, PhD candidate Marthin Tarigan and MSc student Omar Purba, both from Indonesia.  Professor Slippers and Prof Wingfield made the point that this was not a ‘goodbye’ function for Fahimeh but rather a celebration of her accomplishments and her move to a new working environment. Furthermore, that the intention was for her to continue being involved in FABI projects for many years to come.