Congratulations to Dylan, Courtney, and Sipho on your MSc degrees! We are all proud of you!

Well done to our graduating MSc students!
Congrats to Sipho (with distinction!), Portia (with distinction), Dylan, and Courtney.

This year was spent putting up quadrats in the different populations to get a better idea of fitness in the field between lineages and color morphs. Courtney, Attang, and a few others were key to getting these set up. In addition, Dr Annika Moe joined us in the southern Drakensberg for a field trip. Midas approved of her gifts for the toddler. Postdoc-housemates doing science together again!

This year's annual meeting was a hit! We had the pleasure of hosting Profs Luke Harmon and Liam Revell for a Phylogenetics in R workshop. Further, Wits students did a great job presenting their research. We were even graced by the stunning Jozi thunderstorms. What a way to kick off the year!

Courtney and Kelsey presented their posters at the Second Joint Congress on Evolution in Montpellier, France. They also stopped in Paris to appreciate [read: gawk] at the Eiffel Tower.

​Well done to Courtney on her first international conference!

Congrats to Sipho for winning Best Student Oral Presentation for his MSc work on molecular characterization of the variable Opuntia engelmannii lineage! He presented this week at the Annual Invasive Biology conference held at the University of Venda :) Well done, Sipho!

Guelor passed his PhD examination! Well done, Guelor!

Guelor studies population genetic structure of the shrub/tree genus Tamarix in South Africa. His work contributes to a better understanding of population genetic structure, salt tolerance, and how genome expression patterns change when exposed to different conditions. This work helps guide future biocontrol and phytoremediation projects in South Africa.

Ana shared her exciting MSc findings with friends and colleagues at the DST-NRF Center of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB). Although Ana doesn't study pathogens, her work is imperative to keeping baobab trees healthy and producing the next generation!