Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and DST-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics, Professor of Genetics, University of Pretoria
Brenda Wingfield holds the DST-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics and is a Professor of Genetics at the University of Pretoria. She served as Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at UP for seven years and was acting dean for seven months during that time. Her research over the past 20 years focused on the global movement and evolution of fungal pathogens and recently she expanded her research focus to study fungi at the population level. She has supervised and continues to advise a large number of postgraduate students working on plant pathogens. As programme leader at the Centre for Tree Health Biotechnology (one of South Africa’s first six centres of excellence identified by the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation) during the first five years of its existence she played a leading role in the centre’s development. She is also one of the founding members of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) and has played an active role in building the reputation and global footprint of this institute since its establishment. She received the Achiever award for Excellence of the University of Pretoria for ten consecutive years. She has received numerous other significant awards, the most recent being the Christiaan Hendrik Persoon medal, awarded by the Southern African Society for Plant Pathology (SASPP) in recognition of her scientific accomplishments, the highest award that the SASPP can make to a member.
Investing in research is South Africa's best insurance policy against crises
Apr 09, 2020 04:37 am UTC| Investing Economy
As the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads around the world, causing the disease COVID-19, it is becoming ever clearer that the solutions to this pandemic will all be based on research. In some cases these solutions will be based...
How to read and learn from scientific literature, even if you're not an expert
Oct 29, 2018 19:57 pm UTC| Insights & Views Science
Reading scientific literature is not for the faint-hearted. Its dense, and very often full of foreign terms and ideas. It also assumes a basic understanding of the discipline in question. I cant imagine that many people...
A sustainable future begins at ground level
Canada needs a national strategy for homeless refugee claimants
An eclipse for everyone – how visually impaired students can ‘get a feel for’ eclipses