FABI's presence was felt and seen at the Autumn Graduation Ceremony of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science that took place on Wednesday 9 April. PhD's were awarded to seven FABI students, while six more earned MSc's and ten BSc Honours degrees. An additional eleven BSc degrees were awarded to students that have entered the postgraduate programme in FABI this year, or were mentorship students in a FABI programme last year. We congratulate and all these students with their achievements celebrate with them! We also wish those well who are leaving the University to pursue careers elsewhere and welcome those who are staying with us for another degree. Herewith the list of graduandi with their thesis titles:

PhD

Rodrigo Ahumada - Emerging new diseases of plantation-grown Pinus spp. in Chile

Nicky Creux - In silica and functional characterization of the cellulose synthase 1 gene promoter of Eucalyptus trees

Dawit Degefu - Ecology and genetic diversity of Coryphodema tristis on Eucalyptus nitens in South Africa

Karen Eatwell - Remediation of instability in Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP) in tree breeding populations

James Harrison - Phylogeny of the Pegyline and taxonomy of selected southern African Leucopholina (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Melolonthinae}, with an emphasis on genera of agricultural concern

Fahimeh Jami - Taxonomy and ecology of Botryosphaeriaceae associated with Acacia karroo in South Africa

Eshchar Mizrachi - Functional genomics and systems genetics of cellulose biosynthesis in Eucalyptus

MSc

Jonathan Botha - Qualitative reporter gene and targeted yeast one-hybrid analysis of the Eucalyptus grandis SND2 promoter region

Jane Bredenkamp - Characterization of tolerance to bacterial wilt in the model plant Arabidopsis

*Caryn Oates - Transcriptional responses of Eucalyptus clones to the gall wasp, Leptocybe invasa

*Darryl Herron - Characterization of Fusarium species from Pinus and Eucalyptus nurseries in Colombia and South Africa

*Ronel Roberts - 'Candidatus Liberibacters' found in four indigenous Rutaceous species from South Africa

Nicole Rudolph - Efficacy of selected rhizobacterial isolates for biocontrol of Rhizoctonia solani and growth promotion of maize in South Africa

BSc Honours (Honours students of last year who did project with FABI supervisors):

Juanita Avontuur

*Colan Balkwill (prize for the top student in Genetics Honours)

Angelique du Preez

Afrah Khairalla 

*Marius Laubscher 

Vusi Letsoalo

*Thandekile Mamni

Kavani Sanasi

Jennifer Wayland

BSc (Including FABI mentorship students of 2013 and FABI honours students of this year):

*Andrew Behrens (prize for top student in Genetics in third year)

Yves du Toit

Miranda Erasmus

Asleigh Geldenhuys

Kayla Noeth

Boitumelo Ntlatleng

Inge Pietersen

Lizel Potgieter

Elelwani Ramulifho

Benedicta Swalarsk-Parry

Karin van der Westhuizen

*Martin Wierzbicki

(* degrees with distinction)

 

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