SASSB Council

I am a plant taxonomist and evolutionary biologist with interests in the Cape and African flora. My research spans from herbarium based studies, field observations and use of variety of approaches towards discovery of segments of the tree of life, and to understand how they relate to each other and to their environment. I bring wealth of experience as a global citizen and researcher towards the SASSB meeting its full mandate and potential.

My primary research interests are bacterial evolution, systematics and diversity. I am specifically interested in how knowledge of these aspects of bacteriology can be applied to answer specific research questions related to the functioning of bacteria and bacterial communities in different environments. During the past few years my research group have focused mainly on the use of molecular, sequencing and genomics approaches when addressing these questions and the two main focus areas are bacteria associated with plants and aquatic environments.

Being afforded an opportunity to serve in the SASSB council provides an important space for me and the SASSB community at large to contribute in the field and remain relevant. There can never be better time than now when biodiversity crisis is no longer a speculation. The high species extinction rate surpasses the rate at which biodiversity is being discovered and made known to science. While this puts an enormous pressure on systematists and taxonomists coupled with the decreasing number of practitioners in the field, the task at hand is to do more research and strive for progress in what we do.