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Forestry And Agricultural Biotechnology Institute
The Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) (Pretoria) was established in 1997 and is located on the University of Pretoria campus. The initial goal of the institute was to help the development of novel food and fibre crops, that will clearly contribute to global economic development and food security. Over the last decades the goals have expanded to cover a wide range of research fields. FABI was involved in 2011 in the completion of the eucalyptus tree genome (''Eucalyptus grandis''). Primary Objectives Source: Promoting broad field research through a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach and with a close link to a wide range of departments. Members are based in a number of academic departments, like Profs Brenda Wingfield, Sanushka Naidoo, Mike Wingfield, Bernard Slippers, Fanus Venter in Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, or Profs Catherine Sole, Almuth Hammerbacher, Brett Hurley, Abdullahi Yusuf Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed (, ; 15 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Wingfield
Michael John Wingfield (born 21 April 1954) is a South African academic and scientist who studies plant pathology and biological control. He was the founding director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria. Wingfield has authored or co-authored over 1,000 scientific publications and is considered a leading expert in the field of forest health and invasive species. He has received numerous awards and honours throughout his career, including Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award and John Herschel Medal, the highest accolade from the Royal Society of South Africa. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and the African Academy of Sciences. Wingfield has had several fungi named after him. Life and career Early life and education Michael "Mike" John Wingfield was born on 21 April 1954 in Durban, South Africa. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Botany from the University of Natal in 1976, before completing a Master of Sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pretoria
Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothills of the Magaliesberg mountains. It has a reputation as an academic city and centre of research, being home to the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), the University of Pretoria (UP), the University of South Africa (UNISA), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the Human Sciences Research Council. It also hosts the National Research Foundation (South Africa), National Research Foundation and the South African Bureau of Standards. Pretoria was one of the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Pretoria is the central part of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality which was formed by the amalgamation of several former local authorities, including B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Ocean; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini; and it encloses Lesotho. Covering an area of , the country has Demographics of South Africa, a population of over 64 million people. Pretoria is the administrative capital, while Cape Town, as the seat of Parliament of South Africa, Parliament, is the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein is regarded as the judicial capital. The largest, most populous city is Johannesburg, followed by Cape Town and Durban. Cradle of Humankind, Archaeological findings suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa about 2.5 million years ago, and modern humans inhabited the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernard Slippers
Bernard (''Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It has West Germanic origin and is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "brave, hardy". Its native Old English cognate was ''Beornheard'', which was replaced or merged with the French form ''Bernard'' that was brought to England after the Norman Conquest. The name ''Bernhard'' was notably popular among Old Frisian speakers. Its wider use was popularized due to Saint Bernhard of Clairvaux (canonized in 1174). In Ireland, the name was an anglicized form of Brian. Geographical distribution Bernard is the second most common surname in France. As of 2014, 42.2% of all known bearers of the surname ''Bernard'' were residents of France (frequency 1:392), 12.5% of the United States (1:7,203), 7.0% of Haiti (1:382), 6.6% of Tanzania (1:1,961), 4.8% of Canada (1:1,896), 3.6% of Nigeria (1:12,221), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Pretoria
The University of Pretoria (, ) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and ''de facto'' capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 as the Pretoria campus of the Johannesburg-based Transvaal University College and is the fourth South African institution in continuous operation to be awarded university status. The university has grown from the original 32 students in a single late Victorian house to approximately 53,000 in 2019. The university was built on seven suburban campuses on . The university is organised into nine faculties and a business school. Established in 1920, the University of Pretoria Faculty of Veterinary Science is the second oldest veterinary school in Africa and the only veterinary school in South Africa. In 1949, the university launched the first MBA programme outside North America, and the university's Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) has consistently been ranked the top ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiber Crop
Fiber crops are field crops grown for their fibers, which are traditionally used to make paper, cloth, or rope. Fiber crops are characterized by having a large concentration of cellulose, which is what gives them their Strength of materials, strength. The fibers may be chemically modified, like in viscose (used to make rayon and cellophane). In recent years, materials science, materials scientists have begun exploring further use of these fibers in composite materials. Due to cellulose being the main factor of a plant fiber's strength, this is what scientists are looking to manipulate to create different types of fibers. Fiber crops are generally harvestable after a single growing season, as distinct from trees, which are typically grown for many years before being harvested for such materials as wood pulp fiber or Lagetta lagetto, lacebark. In specific circumstances, fiber crops can be superior to wood pulp fiber in terms of technical performance, Environmental degradation, en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Food Security
Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, healthy Human food, food. The availability of food for people of any class, gender, ethnicity, or religion is another element of food protection. Similarly, household food security is considered to exist when all the members of a family have consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food-secure individuals do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. Food security includes resilience to future disruptions of food supply. Such a disruption could occur due to various risk factors such as droughts and floods, shipping disruptions, fuel shortages, economic instability, and wars. Food insecurity is the opposite of food security: a state where there is only limited or uncertain availability of suitable food. The concept of food security has evolved over time. The four pillars of food security include availability, access, utilization, and stability. In addition, there are tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eucalyptus Grandis
''Eucalyptus grandis'', commonly known as the flooded gum or rose gum, is a tall tree with smooth Bark (botany), bark, rough at the base fibrous or flaky, grey to grey-brown. At maturity, it reaches tall, though the largest specimens can exceed tall. It is found on coastal areas and sub-coastal ranges from Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle in New South Wales northwards to west of Daintree, Queensland, Daintree in Queensland, mainly on flat land and lower slopes, where it is the dominant tree of wet forests and on the margins of rainforests. Description ''Eucalyptus grandis'' grows as a straight and tall forest tree, reaching around tall, with a Diameter at breast height, dbh of . The biggest trees can reach high and dbh, the tallest recorded known as "The Grandis" near Bulahdelah, with a height of and a girth of . The bole is straight for 2/3 to 3/4 the height of the tree. The bark is smooth and powdery, pale- or blue-grey to white in colour, with a skirt of rough br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brenda Wingfield
Brenda D. Wingfield is a South African Professor of genetics and previous Deputy Dean of the University of Pretoria. She is known for her genetic studies of fungal tree pathogens. Biography Brenda D. Fairbairn was born in Zambia and educated in Zimbabwe. In High School, she found that she enjoyed genetics and went on to study at the University of Natal. She graduated with B.Sc.Hons Med from the University of Cape Town, Master's degree from the University of Minnesota and PhD from the University of Stellenbosch (1989). In the late 1990s, she began to work at the University of Pretoria. She was one of the founding members of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute. She has published over 400 articles on genetics and trained over 50 both Masters and PhD students respectively. Wingfield holds the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Chair in Fungal Genomics. Research Wingfield's work centers on fungi that act as tree pathogens. In conjunction with her res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catherine Sole
Catherine Lynne Sole is a South African entomologist. She leads the Invertebrate Biosystematics and Conservation Group (IBCG) in the department of zoology and entomology at the University of Pretoria. Sole completed her PhD in entomology in 2005, followed by post docs in Prof Scholtz’s group and she was appointed in 2013 as a senior lecturer in the department, promoted to associate professor in 2016 and to full professor in 2023. Sole has contributed significantly to the understanding of scarabaeoid (dung beetle) and nemopterid (lacewing) systematics at both a local and international level. Sole is one of the African coordinators of the CGSG – Conservation Genetics specialist group, which provides advice on genetic policy and management for the IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global autho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Walter Werner Pirk
Christian Pirk, born in Berlin, is a German behavioural and chemical ecologist in the Department of Zoology & Entomology at the University of Pretoria. Together with Abdullahi Yusuf, he is leading the Social Insects Research Group, which was founded by Prof Robin Crewe. Like Yusuf and Prof Sole, he is a member of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI). Prof Pirk has published over 180 peer-reviewed articles, several book chapters and the book "Honeybee Nests – Composition, Structure, Function" and received in recognition of the work a B-rating from the National Research Foundation of South Africa. His research encompasses behavioural, chemical, evolutionary and molecular ecology with a focus on social insects and communication. He was elected to the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2015; he serves on the council since 2020 and in 2024 took over the task of secretary general of the academy. Pirk was the focal point for workshops on neonicotinoids i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
