News

  • Plant science students fly UP flag high

    Posted on February 26, 2018

    Climate change, food scarcity, drought and increasing food prices are some of the challenges facing the world today. As young academics come face-to-face with these global challenges, they are determined to take charge by taking up careers that are aimed at making a lasting impact.

  • Prestigious award inspires Renaan to achieve more

    Posted on January 29, 2018

    “Receiving this award has tremendous significance by not only motivating me to keep pushing and doing better, but also proving to myself that I can achieve more than what I deem possible. This is the first award of such calibre that I received.” Mr Renaan Shane Thompson, a PhD...

  • Forests are living on the edge – and this is not a good thing

    Posted on November 22, 2017

    The University of Pretoria's Dr Pieter Olivier is part of an international collaboration whose work was recently published in Nature. The study highlights how biodiversity is changing as a result of deforestation.

  • Prof Bernard Slippers appointed as Director of FABI

    Posted on November 17, 2017

    Prof Bernard Slippers has officially been appointed as Professor and Director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Pretoria from 1 January 2018.

  • UP ready to address challenges in agriculture for next hundred years

    Posted on November 14, 2017

    Not only did the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Pretoria (UP) celebrate a hundred years of agriculture at a prestigious event earlier this month, but it also recognised Dr Johan van Zyl, former Vice-Chancellor and Principal of UP and current CEO of African...

  • Interdisciplinary spring course on solar energy and photosynthesis

    Posted on November 01, 2017

    The Department of Physics hosted a highly successful postgraduate interdisciplinary course on solar energy and photosynthesis at the University of Pretoria during the October recess.

  • Prof Mike Wingfield receives Chinese Government Friendship Award

    Posted on October 13, 2017

    Prof Mike Wingfield, Director of the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and President of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations, recently received the Chinese Government Friendship Award for 2017.

  • CMEG student awarded a Gauteng Biotech Fundi Award

    Posted on October 03, 2017

    Storme de Scally, an MSc student at the Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics (CMEG) at the University of Pretoria, was awarded the Best Performing Student at the 2017 Gauteng Biotech Fundi Awards.

  • Indigenous knowledge-based cosmeceuticals for natural and green cosmetics

    Posted on August 31, 2017

    The vast traditional knowledge of South Africa's plants is still untapped and there is much work to be done to verify this knowledge and determine how traditional remedies and local plants actually work.

  • Bright Medicinal Plant Science student inspired to do more

    Posted on August 08, 2017

    Murunwa Madzinga, a master's student in Medicinal Plant Science at the University of Pretoria, recently won first prize for a poster presentation at the 2017 Indigenous Plant Use Forum (IPUF) conference.

  • FABI research opens up a world of science for learners

    Posted on August 07, 2017

    The Forestry and Agricultural Biodiversity Institute (FABI) at the University of Pretoria recently took science to the community of Philippi.

  • PhD student in Medicinal Plant Sciences wins coveted prize for best paper

    Posted on July 31, 2017

    Carel Basson Oosthuizen, a PhD student in Medicinal Plant Sciences in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Pretoria (UP), was awarded the prize for the best paper at the recent annual conference of the Indigenous Plant Usage Forum (IPUF).

  • Science has the power to boost farming in Africa. But a lot has to change

    Posted on June 26, 2017

    Professor Frans Swanepoel from the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria, discusses the possibilities that science offers for the future of farming and food security in Africa.

  • UP joins worldwide research project to fight bacteria affecting tropical and subtropical crops

    Posted on June 22, 2017

    The University of Pretoria (UP) has become a partner in the TROPICSAFE project, an initiative to fight three economically important bacterial diseases of citrus plants, grapevines and palms.

  • Science affords you the opportunity to ask questions

    Posted on May 25, 2017

    More than 60 prizes and trophies were awarded to the top students in the Faculty at the Annual Outstanding Achievers Function for students of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, which took place earlier this month.

  • Three UP students excel at DST/NRF National Global Change Conference

    Posted on January 30, 2017

    Three students from the University of Pretoria were recognised for their excellent presentations at the third DST/NRF National Global Change Conference hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban in December 2016.

  • UP researchers unravel gene networks driving wood formation in trees

    Posted on January 26, 2017

    A team of researchers in the Department of Genetics at the University of Pretoria together with collaborators in Belgium, Canada and the USA, are reporting one of the first large-scale, integrated analyses of 10 000s of genes profiled in the developing wood of plantation trees.

  • We need your help to inspire the scientists of tomorrow!

    Posted on January 20, 2017

    Cape Citizen Science, a project that enlists the help of the public to identify organisms that are killing some of the fynbos species in the Western Cape, has launched a crowd funding campaign to provide youth from a local township with an opportunity to spend a day learning and taking part in...

  • New project to address issues at water-plant-food public health interface

    Posted on January 09, 2017

    A three-year grant under the Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) Program by the USAID and the South African Department of Science and Technology was recently awarded to Prof Lise Korsten and her research team from the Department of Plant and Crop Sciences at the University of...

  • Best first-year lecturer in NAS awarded

    Posted on December 13, 2016

    A lecturer who inspires and motivates students ... This encompasses Mr Carel Oosthuizen, the first-year co-ordinator for Animal Diversity in the Department of Zoology and Entomology who received the Best First-year Lecturer Award in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (NAS) on 2...

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