Congratulations to those FABIans that were capped at the Autumn Graduation Ceremony of the University of Pretoria.

Dr Gabrielle Carstensen

Thesis: Bacterial wilt of Eucalyptus: understanding pathogenicity and the virulence of the causal agents. 

Supervisor: Prof TA Coutinho

Co-supervisors: Prof SN Venter, Prof MJ Wingfield

Dr Runlei Chang

Thesis: Ophiostomatoid fungi associated with conifer-infesting bark beetles in China. 

Supervisor : Prof ZW de Beer 

Co-supervisors: Prof MJ Wingfield, Prof X Zhou, Dr A Duong

Dr Feifei Liu

Thesis: Species diversity and host associations of plant pathogenic Ceratocystis species in China.

Supervisor: Prof SF Chen

Co-supervisors:Prof MJ Wingfield, Dr I Barnes

Dr Gloria Valentine Nakato 

Thesis: Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum: population diversity and the identification of potential sources of resistance from banana accessions representing the Musa diversity worldwide.

Supervisor: Prof TA Coutinho

Co-supervisors: Dr G Mahuku (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Tanzania), Dr EPP Wicker (CIRAD Agricultural Research for Development, France) 

Dr Vou Moses Shutt 

Thesis: Bacterial pathogens of tomato in South Africa: identification, population diversity and cultivar susceptibility.

Supervisor: Prof TA Coutinho

Co-supervisors: Prof JE van der Waals, Dr T Goszczynska (Agricultural Research Council)

Dr Elrea Strydom 

Thesis: Soybean blotchy mosaic virus: Molecular characterization and seasonal persistence. 

Supervisor: Prof G Pietersen

Dr Erika Viljoen 

Thesis: Genetic diversity analysis of the Amaranthus genus using genomic tools. 

Supervisor: Prof DK Berger

MSc

Esna du Plessis

Dissertation: Population biology and impact of Austropuccinia psidii in South Africa.

Supervisor: Prof J Roux

Co-supervisors: Dr I Barnes, Dr AR McTaggart

Ludwig Eksteen 

Dissertation: Patterns and drivers of host use by the European woodwasp, Sirex noctilio, in South African pine plantations. 

Supervisor: Dr JR Garnas 

Co-supervisor: Prof BP Hurley

Zimbili Ethel Mlunjwa

Dissertation: Expression analysis of selected maize primary metabolism genes in response to Cercospora zeina inoculation in the glasshouse. 

Supervisor: Prof DK Berger

Redzuan Rauf 

Dissertation: Ceratocystis wilt on Acacia mangium and Chrysoporthe canker on Eucalyptus in Sabah, Malaysia. 

Supervisor: Prof MJ Wingfield

Co-supervisor: Dr I Barnes

Bianca Rodrigues-Jardim

Dissertation: Characterisation of Sirex noctilio and Culicoides imicola sex determination pathways. 

Supervisor: Dr WC Fick

Co-supervisors: Prof B Slippers, A. Postma-Smidt

Tanya Welgemoed

Dissertation:De novo assembly of transcriptomes from near-isogenic maize lines for novel defence gene discovery. 

Supervisor: Prof DK Berger

External co-supervisor: Dr RE Pierneef (Agricultural Research Council) 

BSC Honours

Jenna Craddock

Shawn Fell

Stefan Ferreira

Phillip Greef

Robert Jansen van Vuuren

So Ri La

Anneri Lotter

Ophelia Maila

Ingrid Marais

Aaron Maringa

Nomaswazi Maseko

Sthembiso Mngadi

Jamie Mollentze

Lebone Sebapu

Precious Kothibe Sedibane

Byron Sonnekus

Taponeswa Tasiya

Palesa Thys

Amber Tulloch

Raven Wienk

BSc

Bernard Smit