Southern African Society for Plant Pathology

News

Western Cape Branch Symposium

The first symposium of the Western-Cape branch of the Southern African Society for Plant Pathology (SASPP) was held on Thursday, 8 May 2008, at the Infruitec-campus of ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij in Stellenbosch. During the symposium, twenty-three speakers discussed the future of fungicides as well as alternative ways of plant disease control, pathogen identification and detection, plant improvement and the managment of post-harvest diseases to reduce the spoilage of harvested crops.

Photo 1: Speakers during the SASPP symposium day. From left to right, back: Dr. Johan Fourie (ExperiCo), Dr. Karin Jacobs (Department Microbiology, US), Dr. Lizel Mostert (Department Plant pathology, US), Mr. André Erasmus (BASF), Mr. Kobus Hartman (Capespan Exports), Dr. Paul Fourie (Citrus Research International), Prof. Bill Fry (Cornell University), Mr. Bekker Wessels (ProCrop Trust). Middle: Mr. Pieter le Roux (Villa Crop Protection). Front: Dr. Michael-John Freeborough (Department Genetics, US), Dr. Yolanda Petersen (Agricultural Research Council), Dr. Abré de Beer (Institute for Viticulture, US), Me. Anika Brackenridge (Institute for Plant Biotechnology, US), Dr. Elisa Angelini (CRA-VIT), Mr. Nolan Africander (Plant Quarantine, Department of Agriculture), Dr. Jeremy Klaasen (University of the Western Cape) and Mr. Ferdi van Zyl (SAPO Trust). Speakers not present when photo was take were Mr. Rupert Anelich (Syngenta), Mr. Petrie de Kock (Bayer CropScience), Mr. Werner Witbooi (ExperiCo), Dr. Strauss Ferreira (AgroOrganics), Dr. Renée Prins (CenGen), Prof. Altus Viljoen (Department of Plant Pathology, US) and Prof. Fred Asiegbu (University of Helsinki).

Professor Altus Viljoen gave his inaugural lecture

Altus Viljoen has been inaugurated as Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology, University of Stellenbosch, on 13 March 2008. With the catchy title “Till death do us part”, he captured everyone’s attention with a review on the role that plant pathology is playing in our everyday life. His lecture started with historic events that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, and he showed how many of these diseases are still causing severe losses to crops and result in food insecurity to inhabitants of developing nations, despite existing control measures. Prof. Viljoen then explained how biotechnology can be used as a strong tool to investigate the relationship between plants and microbes, whether beneficial or detrimental, in the process of developing new-era control measures that are sustainable and environmentally safe. The inauguration was ended with a cheese and wine get together with family, friends and scientists in the field of plant pathology.

From left to right: Prof. L. van Huyssteen (Executive Director Operations & Finance, SU), Prof. Altus Viljoen, Prof. Karen Theron (Acting Dean, Faculty of AgriSciences, SU)

Prof. Theresa Coutinho (University of Pretoria), Prof. Altus Viljoen, Dr. Cheryl Lennox (Department of Plant Pathology, SU)

Northern Branch Symposium

To download the registration form, click here

For the programme, click here

In memoriam: Prof. S.W. Baard

Prof. S.W. (Schalk) Baard, a former head of Plant Pathology at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, passed away on 2 March 2008. Schalk was born on 21 April 1937 in Saldanha, Western Cape.