NAS Research Symposium: Advancing New Frontiers in Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Date: 4 - 5 September 2024

Programme Director: Ms Rimbilana Shingange (Lecturer and PhD candidate: Department of Animal Science)
She completed her undergraduate and master's degrees at the University of Pretoria. Her master’s dissertation is titled 'The attainment of puberty in South African indigenous ram lambs', and she has also continued her focus on reproductive physiology in her PhD thesis. Ms Shingange was awarded the Best Senior Lecturer award for the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science in 2022.

4 SEPTEMBER 2024

Guest Speaker: Prof Bruce Mellado
(Coordinator of the Technology Innovation Platform in Artificial Intelligence (AI) at iThemba LABS and the SA-CERN Technology Innovation Pillar; Senior Advisor in AI for the School of Medicine at Emory University and Healthmetryx)
Title: Technology Transfer with Emphasis on AI for Health
PhD graduate from Columbia University, Bruce Mellado, is a Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, a Senior Researcher of iThemba LABS, a Research Chair in Particle Physics of the National Research Foundation (NRF) and serves as the Director of the Institute for Collider Particle Physics. He is the recipient of several prizes and awards, including the TW Kambule-NSTF Award for Research in 2021 and the Vice-Chancellor Award for Research in 2022. He is a Fellow of the African and South African Academies of Sciences and a B1-rated researcher of the NRF. Prof. Mellado was a member of the Gauteng Premier’s COVID-19 Advisory Committee, where he led work on predictions for the South African Government and pioneered the use of AI for public health management. He is the Co-Executive Director of the Africa- Canada Artificial Intelligence Data Modelling Consortium 1 in partnership with York University in Canada. These projects have received multi-million USD grant awards from the IEEE, the IDRC, SIDA and other sources. Prof. Mellado is the Coordinator of the Technology Innovation Platform in Artificial Intelligence of iThemba LABS and the SA-CERN Technology Innovation Pillar. Prof Mellado is a Senior Advisor in AI for the School of Medicine at Emory University 3 in Atlanta, USA and a Boston-based company, Healthmetryx.

Session 1: Agriculture and Food

Speakers:
Dr Tobias Doyer (Chief Executive Officer: GrainSA Group of Entities)
Title: Farming in a digital world
Dr Tobias is responsible for the strategic management and guidance of the GrainSA Group. Dr Tobias is trained in agricultural and development economics at the Universities of Gent (Belgium) and Pretoria, where he also attained a PhD. He lectured at the University of Pretoria; served as CEO of the Agricultural Business; established Santam Agriculture; served as Head: Broker Services North in Santam; Vice Chancellor of the University of Africa in Lusaka Zambia; and Regional and Operational Execution Executive for Southern and Eastern Africa at Sanlam. GrainSA is a respected farmers' organisation in the South African agricultural industry and broader business environment with a vision for sustainable and profitable local grain farming, contributing to a globally competitive and inclusive grain value chain which develops rural economies, ensures food security, and creates decent and inclusive employment. Grain SA represents various crops, including maize, wheat, soybeans, canola, sunflowers, sorghum, barley, and groundnuts.

Dr Nadine Sonnenberg (Lecturer: Department of Consumer and Food Sciences)
Title: Pursuing Innovative Circular Solutions in the South African Emerging Market Context
Dr Nadine Sonnenberg is a senior lecturer in the Department of Consumer and Food Sciences at the University of Pretoria. Her research and teaching are focused on sustainable consumption practices, particularly those related to the consumption of clothing and textile products. In addition to supervising master's and PhD studies on sustainable consumption, she has co-authored book chapters, articles and other publications on consumers’ inclination to adopt sustainable behaviour. These publications are spread across the consumer science, marketing, clothing and textiles, and recycling and resource conservation domains. Currently funded by the CSIR and the DSI, she collaborates with industry partners, NGOs and the Department of Clothing and Textile Technology at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to develop SMME-scaled circular economy solutions for textile waste. To this end, she actively participates in community engagement projects that create employment for women through reusing and recycling post-consumer textile waste. She is inspired by her collaboration with colleagues in the food domain. She is particularly interested in exploring innovative solutions for converting food waste into commercially viable and sustainable textile dyes.

Mr Deon Scheepers (Lecturer and PhD candidate: Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development)
Title: Quantifying Weather Events on RSA Commodity Price Behaviours and their Impact on Fostering Sustainable Food Environments
Deon Scheepers holds an MSc in Agri-economics from UP and completed his undergraduate studies. His MSc is also complemented by a diploma in quantitative management from UNISA and a Joint European Studies Program certification from the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He is finishing his PhD in Agricultural Economics, focusing on Risk Management and Agricultural Insurance. Industry qualifications include SAFEX dealer’s certification, SAIFM compliance and regulations, and he is currently also an active member of the SAIFM. He holds dealers and international capital markets qualifications from the Securities Institute London. He is also a certified key individual with the FSCA. His career started as the manager for Research and Development of Derivatives for Standard Bank in 2002 and 2003, followed by a career with the RusselStone group. Deon was the Managing Director for Southern Hemisphere seeds, for the South African and Argentinian companies. Deon was a founding member and director of the Bryte/Impac UMA for Agricultural Insurance, which entered the market in 2017.  He joined the University of Pretoria as a full-time lecturer in 2022 with the Department of Agricultural Economics.

Dr Jarishma Gokul (Lecturer: Department of Plant and Soil Sciences)
Title: The Importance of Soil Health/Microbiomes in Sustainable Agriculture
Dr Jarishma K Gokul is a lecturer in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. Her research is focused on Planetary Health, encompassing environmental, plant, and animal microbiomes, aligning new and existing genomic-based soil, water, and fresh produce microbial research to understand microbiomes related to food production, health and well-being. She has expertise in microbiology, molecular biology, and systems biology of polar and temperate terrestrial and marine landscapes using meta-omics techniques. She has been integral in establishing the seed-soil-plant-food-human microbiome nexus in Plant Pathology at UP.  Dr Gokul coordinates research activities in the AgriMicrobiome Research Group and contributes to previous and ongoing research towards understanding the impacts of climate change on Arctic glaciers and Antarctic and Namib soils as a member of the Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics (CMEG). She also leads the recently developed indigenous food microbiome research area in the department as part of funding from the Austrian-African Research Network (Africa-UniNet) and Food And Microbiota in Africa (FAMA) under Fond Équipe France (FEF),  has been awarded in the 2021 #InspiringFiftySA women in STEM and received a Y2 rating as a promising researcher from the SA National Research Foundation in 2023.

Ms Margaret Olwoch (PhD candidate: Department of Consumer and Food Sciences)

Session 2: Science of Water

Chair: Mr Zakhele Nkosi (Lecturer: Department of Geology)
Zakhele Nkosi completed his undergraduate and MSc(Geology) at the University of Pretoria. His MSc dissertation was on mineral carbonation research using platinum mining-derived tailings. The dissertation earned the 2019 John Handley Award from the Geological Society of South Africa (GSSA), awarded to the best MSc thesis in earth sciences produced at a South African university in the year before the award. He is pursuing his PhD at the University of Johannesburg under the supervision of Profs W. Altermann and K.S Viljoen. Mr Nkosi currently serves as a member of the academic staff in the Geology Department at the University of Pretoria with a core teaching focus on Applied and Fundamental Mineralogy, Introduction to Paleontology, and Geoethics. His research focuses on the interdisciplinary approach of applied mineralogy and its application towards using mine waste for climate change mitigation and sustainable green product production (i.e., precious metal extraction).

Speakers:
Dr Alseno Mosai (Lecturer: Department of Chemistry)
The impact of mining and landfills on natural water resources: An urgent matter
Dr Mosai is currently a lecturer and a researcher in Environmental Analytical Chemistry at UP. His research focuses on the effect of mining and landfills on natural water resources (groundwater and surface water).  Solid and liquid samples around mine and landfill sites are collected and analysed for toxic elements that can negatively affect living organisms even when ingested at trace levels. The search also involves the hydrogeochemical characterisation and modelling of landfill leachates and mine dumps using various modelling techniques, including speciation-solubility modelling, geochemical reaction modelling, reactive transport modelling, parameter estimation and chemometrics modelling. Once the toxic elements are identified, suitable, cheap and efficient water remediation strategies, which include adsorbents and processes, are designed to remove the elements from water resources. Moreover, it has been estimated that the resources lost during mining, processing and manufacturing can be found in wastewater. Hence, the research also focuses on the recovery of valuable elements from wastewater. The research has led to exciting and valuable discoveries, resulting in research papers and media attraction (radio interviews and online articles (in Mail and Guardian, The Conversation Africa and Mining Reviews).

Ms Cindy Viviers (Lecturer: Department of Geology)
Title: Adapting with the Flow: Evolving Water Resource Management for a Sustainable Future
Cindy Viviers earned a BSc in Geology, an honours in Hydrology, and an MSc in Hydrogeology from North-West University. Since beginning a consulting career in 2015, Cindy has specialised in groundwater potential, development and management studies for municipalities and large-scale agricultural enterprises, particularly in analytical and numerical modelling. In 2021, Cindy was awarded a PhD scholarship from the Water Research Commission through the University of Pretoria. Cindy, a recently published and peer-reviewed author, acquired extensive big data analysis and processing expertise, focusing on applying machine learning techniques to remotely sensed imagery. Cindy has just submitted her PhD thesis, which explored the use of remotely sensed imagery to monitor monthly groundwater demand and aquifer status (supply) across a highly irrigated region. Cindy is currently lecturing in the Department of Geology.

Prof Liesl Dyson (Professor: Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology)
Title: The nature of rainfall in South Africa, now and into the future
Prof Dyson has been a Meteorologist for nearly 30 years. She started her career as a weather forecaster at the then-South African Weather Bureau. Prof Dyson joined the University of Pretoria in 1997, where she now serves as an associate professor, teaches undergraduate courses in meteorology, and supervises MSc and PhD students in weather forecasting-related topics. Her work focuses on improving the prediction of weather phenomena on short time scales, and she has a particular interest in tropical weather systems, heavy rainfall, and severe weather. The techniques developed by her students find their way to application in the weather forecasting offices of the South African Weather Service. Prof Dyson also serves on the boards of the South African Society of Atmospheric Sciences.

Dr Dalia Saad (Lecturer: Department of Chemistry)
Title: Microplastics: The hidden plastic threat
Dr Dalia Saad is a lecturer in the Department of Chemistry. She is a trained environmental chemist, educator, and researcher, and she holds a PhD in environmental chemistry from the University of Witwatersrand. Before joining UP, she worked at Wits University, the University of Johannesburg and UNISA in South Africa, Khartoum University in Sudan, and the International Water Management Institute in Sri Lanka. Dr Saad’s research interest is promoting access to clean water, namely, materials development for wastewater treatment and resource recovery and reuse. She is also interested in the social aspects of water management and the safe reuse of recycled water. Her research has been supported by several organisations (the Royal Society UK, the Water Research Commission, The World Academy of Science (TWAS), and the Organisation for Women in Science in the Developing Countries (OWSD) and gained national and international recognition and media attention. Dalia is a member of several professional bodies, an ex-member of the executive committee of OWSD - South Africa National Chapter and the founder of OWSD - Sudan National Chapter.

Session 3: Big Data Science

Chair: Prof Bernardo Rodrigues (Professor: Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics)
Prof Rodrigues is a full professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at UP. His research interests are in the theory of finite groups, modular representation theory, and combinatorial design theory, as well as the links of these to algebraic coding theory, algebraic graph theory, and permutation decoding.

Speakers:
Dr Christoph Nieuwoudt (Group Chief Data and Analytics Officer: FirstRand Bank)
Title: The Evolving Role of Data, Analytics, and AI in Financial ServicesDr Christoph Nieuwoudt’s varied career includes registering as a Pr. Eng., completing four degrees including a Ph.D. in Engineering on Machine Learning, consulting with McKinsey & amp; Company and working across five continents.  He joined the FirstRand Group in 2004 in the WesBank division to grow their international business. In 2007 he became Head of Credit and in 2010 FNB Chief Risk Officer and FirstRand Head of Retail Credit. In 2016, he became CEO of FNB Consumer, perhaps the most contested space in SA banking. In 2020, he became the FNB Chief Data and Analytics Officer, a newly created position.

Mr Fernando Ventura (PhD candidate: Department of Physics)
Title: Enhancing Discovery in Large Astronomical Surveys with Machine Learning
Fernando Ventura is a PhD candidate at the University of Pretoria under the supervision of Kshitij Thorat, Anna Bosman and Roger Deane and supported by IDIA. IDIA is an inter-university institute focused on data science in astronomy. He completed his BSc, honours and master’s degrees in physics at UP. His research interests since honours have focused on radio astronomy and machine learning approaches to astronomical data. Recent work has focused on autoencoders, a class of unsupervised or semi-supervised machine learning algorithms that have the potential to categorise sources and isolate exotic sources for further study from extensive radio surveys using MeerKAT data.

Dr Daniel Fresen (Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics)
Title: A Limiting Point Process Near the Edges of Large Random Samples in Two or More Dimensions
Dr Daniel Fresen is a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at UP.

Dr Gaonyalelwe (Gao) Maribe (Executive Head: Data, Analytics & AI, Old Mutual)
Title: AI for the sake of the customers
Dr Maribe is currently employed by Old Mutual Limited as the Executive Head: Data, Analytics & AI. He earned his PhD in Mathematical Statistics from the University of the Free State under the supervision of Prof Jan Beirlant (KU Leuven, Belgium), & Andrehette Verseter (UFS, SA). His research focused on flexible Extreme Value Modelling with applications in insurance. Dr Maribe is an Extraordinary Lecturer in the Department of Statistics at UP. His professional expertise includes various roles as a consulting subject matter expert in AI and data engineering for leading organisations such as MediaCom (UK), Dentsu (UK), Ogilvy (USA), and Anglo-American (SA). Before joining Old Mutual, Dr Maribe honed his expertise as a McKinsey consultant, leading some of the technical delivery in data and AI workstreams within the banking and insurance practice across EMEA. His research and passion lie in driving Digital, Data and AI transformation through AI, focusing on connecting academic thought-leadership with industry innovation and

5 SEPTEMBER 2024

Chair: Dr Carmen Muller (Department of Animal Science)
Dr Muller is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pretoria in the Faculty of Natural Sciences. She holds an MSc and PhD in Nutrition. She advocates for nutrition research and promotes excellence in the field through science-based information. She is particularly interested in linking nutrient quantity and quality of foods to sustainable food systems for attaining nutrition and food security for all. She is a passionate educator dedicated to empowering postgraduate students to reach their fullest potential. She aims to craft personalised learning experiences that resonate deeply with each student’s interests to ensure they thrive as emotionally and socially fulfilled individuals.

Speakers:
Ms Imke Smit (MSc student: Department of Plant and Soil Sciences)
Title: Beyond the Desk: The Unexpected Challenges Presented by a master’s degree
Imke Smit is in the final year of her MSc in plant ecology at the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. Her dissertation investigates how grazing pressure, climate, and soil conditions affect the interactions between dryland plants. She is fascinated by the hidden order (or sometimes disorder) in plant communities and how ecologists can quantify seemingly abstract characteristics of communities. Besides being interested in the mathematics behind plant communities, Imke is passionate about South African flora, especially that of the montane grasslands. Next year, she wants to start a PhD as she aspires to have a career in research and teaching.

Mr Tsholanang Rammopo (PhD candidate: Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology)
Title: What Are You?
Tsholanang Rammopo is a PhD (Meteorology) candidate in the Department of Geography, Geoinformatics, and Meteorology at the University of Pretoria, where he also completed his BSc (cum laude), BSc Hons (cum laude), and MSc (cum laude) in Meteorology. Within the broad field of Meteorology, his area of interest has been the niche field of Dynamical Meteorology, which entails the application of geophysical fluid dynamics concepts to examine the nature, evolution and predictability of the atmosphere and associated weather phenomena under the supervision of Professor Thando Ndarana, who also is from the Geography, Geoinformatics, and Meteorology department. Tsholanang currently serves as a part-time lecturer within the Meteorology department, where he has amassed about four years of teaching and learning experience during which he presented courses such as Programming in Meteorology, Extratropical and Polar Meteorology, and Synoptic-scale circulation dynamics and vorticity in mid-latitudes.

Dr Lethula Mofokeng (Postdoctoral Researcher: Department of Chemistry)
Title: Postdoctoral Challenges and Expanded Opportunities
Lethula Mofokeng is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemistry at UP. Before that, he was a visiting PhD Researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), where he proceeded to complete his PhD in Chemistry at the University of the Witwatersrand. His speciality was the development of self-cleaning photocatalytic membranes for the removal of hazardous pollutants in water. He focuses on 3-dimensional (3D) materials and floatable catalysts for hydrogen generation, membrane filtration systems, and photocatalysis. He’s also one of the 14 postdoctoral fellows appointed by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and National Research Foundation (NRF) for the Policy Development Programme. He’s partially based at the NRF under the newly established Thematic Research Support and Advancement (ThemReSA) unit, where he is co-leading the funding strategy for energy, health, agriculture and agro-processing projects for established researchers. His responsibilities include project management, initiating partnerships and strategic planning of both short and long-term thematic area research funding framework.

Ms Nyasha Mureriwa (Young Working Professional: Swift Geospatial)
Title: The Thin Line Between Theory and Application
Nyasha Mureriwa is an Environmental Science MSc graduate specialising in GIS and Remote Sensing from the University of the Witwatersrand. She currently works at Swift Geospatial as the Senior Project Manager and has about eight years in the Geospatial field. Additionally, she is a member of GISSA, SAGC, SACNASP, ISRPS and Golden Key. The versatility of the geospatial field allows her to work in a range of industries, such as mining, forestry, agriculture, conservation, sustainability and insurance, to mention a few. Each project requires a different mix of data sources, analysis and research. This is what keeps the job interesting for her as a forever student.

Session 5: Animal and Human Health

Dr Christian Stutzer (Lecturer: Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology)
Title: An Integrative Approach to Manage Tick-and Tick-Borne Diseases
Dr Christian Stutzer is a Senior Researcher in the Department of Genetics, Biochemistry, and Microbiology at the University of Pretoria, specialising in molecular parasitology with a focus on ticks and tick-borne diseases of agricultural significance. With his background in biochemistry, chemistry, and genetics, most of his doctoral and postdoctoral career has focussed on enhancing our understanding of tick parasite biology and the molecular mechanisms underlying parasitism, disease transmission, and host immunobiology. This knowledge has facilitated the strategic selection of targets for tick control, leading to the development of tools such as vaccines aimed at improving livestock health and food security for both commercial and resource-poor producers in Africa. In the past four years, he has been actively involved in a project to advance a novel vaccine against the cattle tick, Rhipicephalus microplus, that offers long-term protection via tick-mediate boosting of the bovine immune response. In addition to his research, Dr Stutzer has taught and mentored undergraduate and postgraduate students and co-supervised several postgraduate theses/dissertations within the Tick and Tick-Borne Diseases (TTBD) programme.

Dr Dina Coertzen (Lecturer: Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology)
Title: Understanding Unique Aspects of Malaria Parasite Redox Biology for Novel Drug Discovery Approaches
Dr Dina Coertzen received her PhD in 2015 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in 2017 from the University of Pretoria. She was the lead researcher and project manager for the NRF Communities of Practice: ‘Evaluation of Malaria Control Interventions’ hosted by UP, a major collaborative project between six leading malaria research chairs in South Africa. During this time, she was also awarded the first interfaculty senior postdoctoral fellowship at UP along with an international grant from the Medicines for Malaria Venture aimed towards identifying the mechanism of action of potential antimalarials. She is currently appointed as a lecturer at UP in the Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology. Through her appointment, she functions as a co-investigator in the lab of Prof Lyn-Marié Birkholtz, with a particular interest in malaria parasite biology and drug discovery-focused research. She is pursuing independent research interests in establishing complementary target- and phenotype-based drug discovery approaches targeting parasite redox biology across multiple life cycle stages of the parasite.

Prof Iman van den Bout (Associate Professor: Department of Physiology, UP Faculty of Health Sciences)
Title: Africa-Centric Cancer Research: Generating Locally Relevant Knowledge to Improve the Lives of Black African Cancer Patients
After initial studies in Genetics at the University of Pretoria, Prof Iman van den Bout commenced his PhD studies in the group of Prof Arnoud Sonnenberg at the Netherlands Cancer Institute in The Netherlands, studying the role of integrins on gene expression regulation in cancer. Upon completion, he moved to the CRUK Manchester Cancer Institute in England for a Postdoc in the group of Prof Nullin Divecha, where he studied the modulation of phosphoinositides and their role in cancer cell metastasis. Prof Bout returned to UP as a Vice-Chancellor Postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof Annie Joubert and set up a small research group focusing on cancer models, developing a 3D cancer model which we used to assess the activity of several oestradiol derivatives for their anticancer properties. The development of this model led to my appointment as lecturer in the Department of Physiology and the award of an MRC-SHIP grant to investigate the pharmacogenomics of chemotherapies commonly used in South Africa in black South African patients, using newly established patient-derived cancer organoids. His group focuses on analysing different aspects of cancer in black South African patients since there is a paucity in the understanding of the biology and genetics of cancer in this group. He has also focused on developing novel diagnostic tools for detecting cancer in this group to improve early detection, especially within the public health system. In collaboration with Belgian researchers, he is developing a liquid biopsy method based on the copy number alteration analysis of cell-free DNA using AI to profile and detect cancer. Prof Iman van den Bout is currently appointed associate professor within the Department of Physiology and supervises a group of 10 postgraduate students and teaches cellular physiology to third-year BSc students.

Prof Melvyn Quan (Associate Professor: Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases: UP Faculty of Veterinary Science)
Title: Designing the Future of One Health Education: An Interdisciplinary Challenge
Professor Quan is an associate professor in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases. In 2005, he received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. He returned to the University of Pretoria as a research officer, working on African horse sickness surveillance, geographic information systems, molecular epidemiology, and the development and validation of diagnostic assays. He moved to an academic post in 2010 and continued research on developing and validating rapid, multiplex molecular assays of diseases of veterinary importance. His current research focus is on the development of multiplex Luminex assays for veterinary haemoparasites and causes of bovine abortion. He also elucidates the epidemiology of transboundary diseases of veterinary importance, such as foot-and-mouth disease and peste des petits ruminants. He has lectured in 20 undergraduate and 12 modules and has been involved in curriculum design and 13 continuing education courses. In 2022, he was awarded the Faculty of Veterinary Science Teaching and Learning Award for Education Innovation. He is an NRF C-rated researcher and has published 46 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Guest Speaker: Mr Steven Ball (Director: TuksSport)
Title: For the Love of the Game. What on Earth Can Help Me?
Steven Ball is a well-educated and enthusiastic individual with a strong understanding and background in university sports, sports management, sports performance, strength and conditioning and support of athletes. He has been involved with club, provincial, national, and international athletes from various sporting codes and has been in various positions of responsibility and leadership. These included work as the SA National Team Sport Scientist / Biokineticist in Swimming, team management and coaching of athletes to Olympic participation. It has included leadership and management roles within all entities in which he has been employed, where he has learnt the dynamics of leading, engaging, and challenging students, elite performers and staff in diverse and inclusive spaces. Steven’s passion is performance sports and exploring how to get athletes along the performance continuum to perform at their optimal, which he has been fortunate to explore with coaches and scientists. Through his understanding and passion for sports leadership and strategic management, he has balanced this in his current roles as Director of TuksSport and CEO of the High-Performance Centre (TuksSport Pty Ltd). He has been tasked with providing strategic leadership and direction to the sports entities at UP. This has included unpacking a renewed vision and mission for sport, our professional service department, TuksSport and the sport business company, the hpc. He has served on various associations, organisations, and committees at provincial and national levels, focusing on high performance. This includes currently serving as Director of various sport company boards of the University of Pretoria and associated entities.

Session 6: Postgraduate poster presentations

Chair: Professor Gregory Breetzke (Associate Professor Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology)
Prof Gregory Breetzke is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology at the University of Pretoria. He is a spatial crime researcher whose research focuses on the geospatial analysis of crime and criminal offenders. He is particularly interested in examining crime patterns and trends and how they vary across space and time. Other current interests include the development of indigenous theories of crime and examining crime as a development issue.