FABI Management is delighted with the appointment of Prof Fanus Venter as the Deputy Director of FABI. The position was created against the backdrop of the size and expansion of the Institute and the fact that Prof Bernard Slippers currently holds the Directorship of both FABI and Future Africa. 

Professor Venter brings extensive academic leadership experience to this position.  Amongst other positions, he has been the Head of Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology (2010-2016) and held the Rand Water Chair in Water Microbiology (2013-2018). He has been involved in the management of a range of research projects that consisted of multi-disciplinary teams from a number of organisations. He is goal-oriented and has demonstrated his ability to consistently deliver results on complex projects. Fanus is a leader and a team player and have been playing a pivotal role in FABI and the University of Pretoria for many years to help create an enabling environment for quality research and teaching. 

Fanus is an internationally-recognised bacteriologist who has primary research interests in bacterial evolution, systematics and diversity. He is specifically interested in how knowledge of these aspects of bacteriology can be applied to answer specific research questions related to the functioning of bacteria and bacterial communities in different environments. During the past few years his research group have focused mainly on the use of molecular, sequencing and genomics approaches when addressing these questions and the two main focus areas are bacteria associated with plants and aquatic environments.