FABI team members faced the sad reality of having to say goodbye to Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Hiroyuki Suzuki on 21 February, at a farewell function held in his honour at the Future Africa campus. After spending three years in FABI, Hiro has left to return to his home country to take up a full time teaching post at the Niigata Agro-Food University in Japan. He joined the FABI in April 2019 with the intention on working on rust fungi but ended up studying the tree pathogens in the Cryphonectriaceae. This project was conducted under the supervision of  Proff. Mike Wingfield, Brenda Wingfield and Dr Seonju Marincowitz. Mike thanked Hiro for his great contributions to FABI and mentioned his very impressive research output and at least seven scientific publications from his work. He also commented on Hiro’s engaging and positive personality leading to his many good friendships in FABI. Mike specifically also referred to plans already being made to build additional research ‘bridges” with colleagues in Japan and that Hiro would play a key role in establishing these new and important initiatives.  In responding, Hiro thanked FABI and the FABIans for their support and friendship, saying that he had learnt more during his three year postdoc in FABI than perhaps in his entire PhD. In closing, Mike wished Hiro, his wife Misaki and son Kanto a safe trip home and an easy time settling into their new work and home environment. And noted that the FABI team would be looking forward to the return of the Suzuki family in the near future.