Prof Cobus Visagie from the Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology and the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) recently received the prestigious Johanna Westerdijk Award for outstanding contribution to the culture collection of the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute in the Netherlands.

The Award is presented on special occasions to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the culture collection of the Institute, marking a distinguished career in mycology. Nominees are evaluated on the quality of their contributions to the collection and based on associated mycological research in general.

“It was a great honour to receive the Johanna Westerdijk Award. As a mycologist whose research is strongly focused on fungal biodiversity and taxonomy, it is part of my job to develop culture collections into national and international assets and make these reference strains available to other researchers to study their biology, ecology and many other aspects.”

He added, “On a personal level, receiving this award from an institute that played a big role in my life was extra special. It was the place where I completed a postdoctoral fellowship, met my life partner, did a sabbatical, and where many of my close friends and collaborators work,” Prof Visagie explained.

Prof Visagie has received significant recognition for his research outputs. The taxonomy he has helped to create for Eurotiales has made it easier than ever for the community to identify important species classified in Aspergillus and Penicillium, and resulted in the description of 100's of species since. He introduced names for 209 fungal species, including 103 Penicillium, 59 Aspergillus, 23 Talaromyces, and many others, most of which were from South African environments. The NRF recently awarded him a B3 rating after holding a P-rating.

Prof Visagie also help manage the culture collection of FABI which is a recognised BioBank in the National Science Collections Facility (NSCF) of South Africa. Furthermore, he co-directs the National Grain Research Platform (NGRP). The NGRP connects stakeholders from academia, industry and government, with a vision to drive fundamental and solution-oriented research that supports South Africa’s food security and bioeconomy.