Two of our students, Jason le Roux (Masters) and Maleho Sadiki (Honours), were jointly awarded the prize for the best student work using geospatial analyses and GIS at the recent SAAG biennial conference. Jason has been developing a wetland map for Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) using a combined field work and digital approach. Maleho has been mapping water bodies on Marion Island using remote sensing and GIS methods. Jason is being supervised by Heinz Beckedahl, an extraordinary professor in our department, as well as Paul Sumner from the University of Fort Hare. Maleho is being supervised by Christel Hansen from our department, as well as Michelle Greve from the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, also at UP. We congratulate both students on their achievement!

The two student prizes were awarded during the conference dinner on Tuesday 17 September and prizes (a cash prize of R 500.00 each) were sponsored by Esri South Africa. The outgoing SAAG President, Professor David Hedding from Unisa, gave Jason and Maleho their awards on behalf of Esri South Africa. For more on the conference have a look here or look at our gallery.