We are pleased to announce that Arista Fourie received a distinction for her MSc thesis entitled: Distinguishing between cryptic species in the Ceratocystis fimbriata sensu lato species complex . Arista, who is part of the Genetics Department, conducted her research at FABI under the supervision of Dr Irene Barnes , Prof Brenda Wingfield and Prof Mike Wingfield . Arista will take a research break for the next 3 months doing community and outreach work in the neighbouring countries of Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana and then plans to return to FABI to start with a PhD degree. Congratulations Arista! Photo: Arista (middle in blue) celebrates her achievement with fellow lab mates Alisa Postma , Dr Irene Barnes (Supervisor) and Katrin Fitza .