Connecting with FABI friends in Sabah-Malaysia 2019-08-23
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. During the visit, had the opportunity to continue research work with past MSc student Mohd Redzuan Abul Rauf and to engage in discussions seeking to build closer ties with University colleagues in Malaysia. As part of the visit, Mike participated in a symposium hosted by the Borneo Forestry Co-operative where he presented a talk on pest and disease problems affecting plantation forestry in South-East Asia. This provided an opportunity to present to internationally-recognized forestry leader David Boden with a framed plate from a recent paper in which a new Eucalyptus pathogen has been named for him. The fungal pathogen, likely native to Borneo, resides in a new genus and species of Chrysoporthe, which will be known as Myrtoporthe bodeni.