This month’s FABI International Seminar on 26 August moved into the medical mycology sphere casting the spotlight on the devastating impact that COVID-19 associated mucormycosis (CAM) is having on the Indian population.
Dr Neriman Yilmaz was a category winner in Inqaba Biotec's ‘Africa Genome Challenge 2021’ competition to promote a new sequencing platform available to their clients.
Recently, FABI had established a collaboration partnership with the Department of Horticulture at Durban University of Technology (DUT) to train students through the SANBI Sentinel Plant Project.
Three FABIans set out to collect pupae of the wattle bagworm (Lepidoptera: Psychidae) and larvae of the pine emperor moth (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) near Greytown.
A team from FABI visited various sites in the greater Durban area to scout for native natural enemies of the PSHB that can be used in a biological control programme
n Friday 13 August, members of the Macadamia Protection Programme along with other FABIans gathered to say farewell to Dr Arista Fourie.
‘Solanaceae - more than potatoes and tomatoes!’ was the topic of the plenary speaker Dr Sandra Knapp of the Natural History Museum in London at the August Southern African Society for Systematic Biology (SASSB) webinar.
Congratulations to Professor Almuth Hammerbacher who has scored a hat-trick with a third publication in a journal with an Impact Factor of higher than 10 in consecutive years.
Myriam Solís, a PhD candidate in the Eucalyptus and Pine Pathogens Interactions (EPPI) research group in FABI, participated in the conference of the American Phytopathological Society (APS).
The International Forestry Students' Association (IFSA) and the joint IUFRO-IFSA Task Force on Forestry Education launched their book “Building a successful forestry career in Africa: Inspirational stories and opportunities” during an online event.
A hearty congratulations to Yosef Hamba Tola on successfully completing all requirements for his PhD degree.
The meeting of the Epsilon Chapter of the Society for the Presentation of Outrageous Findings (SPOOF) hosted by FABI saw witches, wizards, elves, pixies, muggles, mudbloods and all other manner of magical folk and creatures join in the evening’s fun at the FABwarts School of Sci-craft and Wizardry.
Dr Anne Pringle discussed the “Problem of invasive mycorrhizal fungi” as our guest speaker for the month of July FABI International Seminar Series on 29 July.
More than 20 members of the Forest Molecular Genetics (FMG) programme in FABI had a front-row seat to the latest research and technological advances across a variety of plant biology disciplines attending this year’s ASPB Plant Biology Worldwide Summit 2021.
FABI was shocked and deeply saddened at the passing of Valentina Nkosi on 23 July.
As part of the public outreach for the International Year of Plant Health (IYPH 2020), Prof. Plant health Your browser does not support the audio element. Crop nutrition Your browser does not support the audio element.
On Thursday 22 July Prof. Mike Wingfield, founding Director of FABI was joined by colleagues to undertake a suite of inoculations aimed at understanding the role of a number of tree pathogens of importance to various FABI projects.
FABI celebrated the successful completion of Mmatshepho Phasha’s PhD degree on 12 July making it an all-woman PhD record since the start of the year for the Institute.
Congratulations to Wilma Nel on completing all requirements for her PhD on 13 July.
FABI and Innovation Africa @UP are partnering with Engineering 4.
Dr Steven Hussey was one of three international researchers to present their work in an online symposium, “Hort Dialogues”, on 15 July.
Construction of an artificial diet room has started at the FABI Biocontrol Centre at Innovation Africa.
From 28 June until 1 July, academic staff, postdoctoral Fellows and students from FABI attended the 22nd Biennial Entomological Society of Southern Africa (ESSA) Congress.
FABI celebrated the completion of Josephine Queffelec’s PhD with her Prestige Seminar “Influence of reproductive biology on the invasive dynamics of Sirex noctilio” on 30 June.
FABI and the Southern African Society of Systematic Biology (SASSB) jointly hosted a webinar with the theme ‘Fungal evolution’ on 1 July.
Two FABI PhD candidates were recognized for research excellence by the Southern African Institute of Forestry (SAIF).
FABI’s popular online Quiz Night had 12 teams battling for honours once again on 25 July.
Professor Brenda Wingfield has created a podcast on Mycoviruses.
FABI recently hosted a visit by five representatives of the South African Kiwi Growers Association.
FABI researchers participated in the NSTF-hosted two-day Plant Health Discussion Forum webinar.
FABI is hosting a new monthly webinar series on behalf of the SASSB to enable sharing of systematic research and to offer researchers an online space for discussion about their systematic biology research, thoughts, and questions.
In April 2021, FABIans met with staff members of the Department of Horticulture at Durban University of Technology (DUT) to discuss possibilities for student training through the Sentinel Plant Project.
FABI tree health researchers were recently alerted to a concerning die-back affecting Araucaria trees in Stellenbosch.
Iconic tree ferns Alsophila (Cyathea) dregii have been observed dying in southern Cape forests for some years.
During 2020, FABI initiated a research project focused on the fungi associated with bark beetles infesting, especially the Clanwilliam Cedar Widdringtonia (cedarbergensis) wallichii.
Leading chemical ecologist, Prof. Jonathan Gershenzon, of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology was the guest speaker at the May FABI International Seminar Series.