Professor Mike Wingfield, President of IUFRO and Director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) had the pleasure of presiding over the signing of an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between IUFRO and AFPNet. Mike, in his vote of thanks, said Ï looked forward to connecting the strengths of IUFRO and AFPNet – particularly in research and “the empowerment of young forest researchers.
FABI Director, Prof. Mike Wingfield, in his capacity as IUFRO President, welcomed delegates to the 55th IUFRO Board Meeting held in Beijing on 21-22 October.
A postodoctoral fellow in FABI, Dr Gudrun Dittrich-Schröder, shares her experience of attending a major international congress with us.
On Friday 14 October FABI was honoured by a brief visit of Prof. Jianguo Hou, Vice Minister of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China.
Two FABIans, Dr Brett Hurley and Ms. The main purpose of the trip was to visit the insect rearing and quarantine facilities and to learn from the processes and quality control systems used.
FABI PhD student Joey Hulbert extended his Cape Citizen Science project to two popular tourist towns in the Western Cape over a weekend in September to raise awareness about the threat of pathogens to the fynbos biome.
During the week of 25-30 September, eight FABIans participated in the largest ever gathering of entomologists, the 2016 International Congress of Entomology.
FABI has sponsored the replacement of the plaque on the monument at Cedara near Pietermaritzburg that commemorates the groundbreaking biological control work by the South African entomologist Dr. F.G.C. Tooke.
FABI Director, Prof. Mike Wingfield, in his capacity as the IUFRO President, hosted members of the South African committee of the International Forestry Students Association (IFSA) on 29-30 September.
The joint congress of the South African Society for Bioinformatics (SASBi) and the South African Genetics Society (SAGS) was held at the Nelson Mandela school of Medicine, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal 20-23rd September 2016. The congress involved researchers from institutions across the country and provided an ideal platform for postgraduate students to present their research.
The head of the pathology programme of the China Eucalyptus Research Centre (CERC), Dr ShuaiFei Chen visited FABI in September. ShuaiFei completed his Ph.
FABI hosted a comparative genomics workshop for postgraduate students and staff from 13 to 15 September. Titled “Workshop on Linux Essentials and Variant Discovery with GATK”, the three-day session was presented by Dr Vang Quy Le from the Aalborg University Hospital in Denmark.
On 6 September members of the FABI community attended and presented work at the African Center for Gene Technologies (ACGT) Synthetic Biology Symposium at the African Pride Irene Country Lodge.
The 2016 Pretoria_UP iGEM team, instructed by FABIan Dr. Steven Hussey, partnered with the African Center for Gene Technologies (ACGT) to facilitate a plant synthetic biology workshop on 5 September 2016 at the University of Pretoria.
Former Dean in the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and previously a head in its Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Prof. Fritz Rijkenberg, visited FABi for the first time last week.
The Fruit Tree Biotechnology Programme (FTBP) held the annual Hans Merensky Foundation Student Presentation seminars at FABI on 8 September.
Members of Cereal Foliar Pathogen Research (CFPR), Molecular Plant Pathogen Interactions (MPPI) and Molecular Plant Physiology (MPP) research groups attended the African Centre for Gene Technologies (ACGT) Plant Biotechnology Forum on 8 September 2016 at the CSIR International Convention Centre.
Armed with cooler bags, sunblock and camp chairs, FABIans joined the fray of UP staff and students who got together to celebrate the end of winter.
Professor Martin Coetzee attended the 87th Meeting of the Mycological Society of America (MSA) from 10-14 August in Minneapolis, USA.
FABians celebrated the arrival of spring with a Spring Tea social. Photographs: Morne Booij-Liewes
FABI celebrated the graduation of two PhD and four MSc students at the Spring Graduation Ceremony of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences on 1 September. PhD Dr Sarai Olivier-Espejel - Patterns and drivers of insect community diversity and composition in non-native black wattle and pine plantations in South Africa. Supervisor: Dr Jeff Garnas. Co-supervisor: Dr Brett Hurley. Dr Elsie Cruywagen - Diversity and taxonomy of fungi infecting species of Adansonia (Baobab). Supervisor: Prof. Co-supervisors: Prof. MSc Matt Laubscher – Functional genomics analysis of Eucalyptus grandis secondary cell wall-related transcription factors EgrNAC26 and EgrNAC61 through heterologous induction in Arabidopsis mesophyll protoplasts Supervisor: Dr. Co-supervisors: Dr Eshchar Mizrachi and Prof. Juanita Avontuur - The classification of novel Bradyrhizobium species associated with indigenous southern African legumes. Supervisor: Prof. Co-supervisor: Prof. Johan Bestbier – HPLC and colourimetric quanitification of shikimic acid levels in crops after glyphosate treatment. Supervisor: Dr Juan Vorster. Angelique du Preez - Flagellin glycosylation in Pantoea ananatis. Supervisor: Prof. Co-supervisors: Prof.
FABIans were able to witness a partial solar eclipse during their Spring Day Tea celebrations on 1 September.
Prof. One of the major concerns for the macadamia industry is damage caused by the two-spotted stinkbug (Bathycoelia Distincta). Prof. Approximately 350 delegates attended the symposium.
Ten FABI postgraduate students representing South Africa, China, Vietnam, Colombia, Cameroon, Malaysia and Nigeria participated in the #ScienceIsGlobal Twitter media campaign created by The Royal Society in partnership with national academies across the UK and Europe.
In a spectacular show of colour and food, FABIans celebrated the arrival of spring at the annual FABI Spring Day Tea in the FABI courtyard.
The Annual Meeting of the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Foundation Centre’s of Excellence was hosted by the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal on Thursday 25th and Friday 26th August.
The International Forestry Students Association (IFSA) held their annual International Forestry Students Symposium (IFSS) in Austria from 7-23 August. As part of the IFSS proceedings, FABI Director and IUFRO President, Prof. Mike Wingfield participated in two events.
This year has been designated as the International Year of Pulses (grain legumes) by the 68th UN General Assembly.
Twenty FABI post-graduate students and staff took the opportunity to visit the FABI Biocontrol facility on the UP experimental farm on Friday 19 August. Facility manager, Prof.
True to its focus on trending issues, this week’s FAME Club seminars in FABI paid homage to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games currently on in Brazil. Catherine Tatham’s presentation on research on long-term contraceptive solutions, titled “Do bonking bunnies hold the answer to the future of contraception” was delivered in less than three minutes and was voted the best by the audience.
Dr. The NSFC set up the Excellent Young Scholar Fund in 2012 to promote the rapid development of young Chinese scientists and to train a group of excellent young scientists to enter the forefront of world science and technology. ShuaiFei joined FABI in 2007 where he completed his PhD degree in 2011, followed by post-doctoral fellowships at the Institute and later in the USA.
Building a career in science takes time and usually starts at a young age. The Expo gives budding young scientists and engineers the opportunity to showcase their talent.
The Outreach team from the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB) at FABI travelled to Piet Retief, Mpumalanga, on 9 August to participate in the annual National Science Week fair. By the end of each experiment, the learners were convinced that science, not magic or trickery, explained the phenomena unfolding before their eyes. The CTHB team showed the learners how to use mathematics to outsmart their friends in a game of cards and also simplified exothermic reactions in chemistry by using hydrogen peroxide, dishwashing liquid, food colouring and yeast to create fluorescent “volcanoes” which erupted in front of their eyes! An initiative of the Department of Science and Technology, NSW events are held over five days across all nine provinces.
FABI congratulates Alexander Osorio on the successful defence of his PhD thesis during his oral examination on 10 August. His thesis, titled: Diseases of mangrove trees in South Africa, was a unique project as FABI had never before worked on mangrove tree species and it therefore presented some unique challenges. PUBLICATIONS FROM HIS THESIS Osorio JA, Wingfield MJ, de Beer ZW, Roux J. Osorio JA, Wingfield MJ, Roux J.
FABI was honoured to receive a visit by the Colombian Ambassador to South Africa, Her Excellency, Dr Maria Eugenia Correa Olarte on the occasion of Alexander Osorio’s PhD prestige seminar on 10 August.
The world renown forest pathologist, Prof. Panos Tsopelas, presented a special seminar at FABI titled: Canker stain disease: a major threat to natural stands of Platanus orientalis in the Balkan Peninsula.