FABIans celebrated a colourful yet pensive Spring Day Tea in the FABI Courtyard on 4 September. The FABI Social Club hosts this colourful spectacle every year in celebration of renewal that comes with the end of winter.
Professor Brenda Wingfield had the privilege of attending the MPI Fungal Symposium in Plön, Germany from 2-4 September.
James Michel Tchotet Tchoumi has become the latest FABIan to pass his PhD, fulfilling all the requirements for completing his degree. Michel’s study aimed to establish the identity and host range of Basidiomycetous wood-rot fungi associated with wood rot systems in the GRNP and lay a foundation on which to continue studies to determine the impact of selective harvesting and other anthropogenic impacts on these forests. The specific objectives of his study included assessing the diversity and host affinities of wood-rotting Basidiomycetes associated with declining native trees in timber-harvesting compartments in the GRNP.
The DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB) at the University of Pretoria hosted 28 undergraduate students and staff from the University of Venda (UniVen) on 22 August.
Professor Mike Wingfield, Founder Director of FABI recently visited Sabah in Malaysia to continue work on tree diseases, especially the devastation that Ceratocytis manginecans has caused to Acacia mangium plantations in the area.
Long-time FABI-collaborator Prof. Lori Eckhardt visited the Institute during August as part of the ongoing research collaboration between FABI and Auburn University.
The 16 August edition of The Nation, a popular daily newspaper in Malawi, includes an opinion piece written by Rachel Mkandawire, a PhD candidate at FABI.
FABIans gathered to say farewell to Dr RunLei Chang who is returning to China to take up a teaching post at the Shandong Normal University, JiNan City in the ShanDong Province.
FABI and Founding-Future Africa Director Prof. Bernard Slippers attended the inaugural West Africa Science Leadership Programme (W-ASLP) leadership training workshop held in Accra, Ghana from 21-23 July.
FABI PhD candidate Mandy Messal was invited by SCION researchers Mr Andrew Pugh and (former FABIan) Dr Stuart Fraser to write a news article for the monthly SCION Forest Health Newsletter (SCION, New Zealand).
Professor Robin Crewe, a world-renowned expert on bees, presented a special seminar on the behaviour of individual members of a bee colony at FABI on 7 August.
The DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB) Outreach Team in FABI geared up once again to participate in the 2019 National Science Week (NSW) which took place from 29 July to 2 August.
During his recent visit to Europe, Prof Mike Wingfield had the opportunity to meet with colleague Prof. Libor Jankowsky, Dean of Forestry at Mendel University in the Czech Republic.
As part of his participation in the 2019 International Forestry Students’ Symposium (IFSS), Prof. Mike Wingfield had the opportunity to visit forest pathology colleagues linked to the Estonian University of Life Sciences in Tartu.
FABI Professor and IUFRO President Mike Wingfield participated in the first day of the two-week long International Forestry Student’s Symposium (IFSS) organised annually by the International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA).
PhD candidate Quentin Guignard presented a special seminar on the visual system of the European woodwasp, Sirex noctilio, at FABI on 29 July.
The biennial Congress on Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (MPMI), hosted by the International Society for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions took place from 14-18 July in Glasgow, Scotland.
FABIans celebrated two prestige seminars on 24 July. Both presentations cast the spotlight on challenges facing cassava-growing countries in Africa.
The 21st Congress of the Entomological Society of Southern Africa (ESSA) with the theme “Innovative Entomology” was held in Umhlanga in the KwaZulu-Natal Province from 8-11 July.
FABI congratulates Arista Fourie who fulfilled all the requirements for a PhD degree, the eighth FABIan to reach this milestone in 2019.
The Entomology Journal Club (EJC) in FABI is going strong with 25 enthusiastic members and record-breaking attendance at every meeting. This group of enthusiastic researchers meets once every two weeks and is always happy to welcome new members to discuss groundbreaking entomological research.
FABI hosted a simulation modelling workshop led by two leaders in the field, Dr Serge Savary and Dr Laetitia Willocquet; both senior scientists at the AGIR Research unit of INRA’s Research Centre of Toulouse in France.
Disney’s Magic Kingdom welcomed FABIans for this year’s annual meeting of the Society for the Presentation of Outrageous Findings (SPOOF). The FABI Social Club worked tirelessly to transform Tuks Monate into a magical wonderland filled with fantastically dressed inhabitants.
A team of ten FABIans including FABI Director Prof. Bernard Slippers attended the 21st annual gala dinner and awards ceremony of the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF). The event, commonly referred to as the “Science Oscars” was held at Emperors Palace on Thursday 27 June.
FABI founding Director and current IUFRO President, Professor Mike Wingfield was this past week interviewed by the China People’s Daily, China’s biggest newspaper group.
Professor Zander Myburg, research leader of the Forest Molecular Genetics (FMG) Research Group in FABI was awarded the prestigious Biotechnologist of the Year Award by the Institute of Forest Biosciences (IFB).
FABI celebrated the first publication of a paper in an ISI-rated scientific journal by four students in the TPCP and CTHB research groups at a publication party on 27 June.
The South African Regional Meeting (SARM) of the International Forestry Students’ Association (IFSA) was held during the week of 24 June in George, which is home to the George (Forestry) campus of Nelson Mandela University (previously Saasveld).
FABI PhD candidate Quentin Guignard recently returned from a three week visit to the University of Würzburg in Germany where he received training to operate an electroretinogram (ERG).
Recently, Drs Mesfin Gossa and Trudy Paap assessed plant health in eight gardens across South Africa, including Arderne Gardens, Durban Botanic Garden, Pretoria National Zoological Garden, and Harold Porter, Kirstenbosch, KwaZulu-Natal, Pretoria and Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens.
Chrizelle Beukes successfully defended her PhD thesis on 18 June, fulfilling all the requirements for a PhD degree.
For her precision and dexterity, FABI PhD student Benedicta Swalarsk-Parry was crowned “Pipetting Ninja” at a mini pipetting competition hosted by Inqaba Biotec at FABI on 5 June.
Dr Trudy Paap’s seminar “Plants, people and places” on 10 June chronicled the movement of plants through history and warned of the dangers of unregulated importation of plant material.
Thaumastocoris peregrinus, the bronze bug, is not only a pest attacking Eucalyptus in South Africa but is also a problem in several other African countries.
The University of Pretoria honoured its best academics on 21 May, including seven researchers from FABI.