New beginnings at NAS: Meet Dr Jarishma K Gokul

Posted on February 17, 2021

Meet Dr Jarishma K Gokul, Lecturer and Microbiome Group Leader in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences who was appointed in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences in January 2021.

New study reveals mechanism for formation and discovery of fairy circles in Kalahari Desert

Posted on February 05, 2021

The hundreds of thousands of bare circular patches in the arid grasslands in the Namib Desert, commonly referred to as fairy circles, have puzzled the scientific community for decades. The fairy circles are mostly confined to a narrow strip, about 50 to 100 km inland from the Atlantic Ocean,...

Plant pathologists are excellent problem solvers

Posted on February 02, 2021

Plant pathologists are excellent problem solvers Scarce skills in Natural and Agricultural Sciences Focus on a plant pathologist: Dr Mahlane Godfrey Kgatle (Department of Plant and Soil Sciences) Postdoctoral fellow, FABI

Wetlands play a vital role in our daily lives

Posted on February 02, 2021

2 February is World Wetlands Day. This year’s theme is Wetlands and Water. The Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Pretoria (UP) also celebrates this day and wants to increase awareness and support for the vital role that wetlands play in our daily lives.

Natural success: TuksNovation helps UP students turn passion for medicinal plant science into skincare business

Posted on January 28, 2021

A start-up company founded by two postgraduate UP students, incubated by UP’s TuksNovation, is starting to turn heads in the natural skincare products market.

Big year for forestry at UP

Posted on December 09, 2020

Not only did the Forestry Programme at the University of Pretoria (UP) celebrate ten years in 2020, but Prof Paxie Chirwa, the incumbent of the South African Forestry Companies Limited (SAFCOL) Forestry Chair, co-edited a book on the Miombo Woodlands.

MSc student attends international Plant Breeders congress

Posted on December 03, 2020

Ms Ingrid Marais, an MSc Biotechnology student in the Molecular Plant Pathogen Interactions research group in the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) and the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Pretoria, was recently selected to attend the National...

Latest T&L@NAS Bulletin (2020) now available

Posted on February 06, 2020

Latest T&L@NAS Bulletin (2020) now available