CBC Graduation 2018

Nomvume Petela, Dr Julie Coetzee & Sisanda Mvandaba
Nomvume Petela, Dr Julie Coetzee & Sisanda Mvandaba

The recent Rhodes University graduation ceremonies from 5th to 7th April, produced no fewer than 10 MSc & PhD graduates from the Centre for Biological Control -  eight MSc's and two PhD's to be exact. Both PhD graduates were within the Agricultural entomology field - Michael Jukes, worked on Baculovirus synergism in the False Codling moth (supervised by Prof Caroline Knox, Dr Sean More and Prof Hill) and Sonnica Albertyn looked at the population ecology of False Codling moths in citrus orchards as influenced by the orchard age (supervised by Prof Martin Hill and Dr Sean Moore).

Five of the eight MSc graduates were also within the Agricultural entomology field – Fracois Joubert, Marcel van der Merwe (with distinction), Megan Mulchay, Melissa Lloyd and Tamzin Griffith (distinction). Waterweeds and their biological control agents were the focus of two of the MSc graduates - Sisanda Mvandaba studied on Red Water Fern and Water lettuce and the thermal physiology of their respective biological control agents, and Nomvume Petela focused on the interactions between three biological control agents of Water Hyacinth. The focus of Lumka Mdodana’s MSc was on the potential impact and host range of a new candidate biological control agent for the control of Pereskia, an invasive cactus in South Africa.

The CBC congratulates all these graduates on their hard work and excellent achievements and for flying the flag high for biological control research at Rhodes University. A list of all past students, and a link to their theses is available on the CBC website. 

 

CBC 2018 Masters and Doctoral Graduates and their supervisors: Dr Iain Paterson, Lumka Mdodana, Sisanda, Mvandaba, Dr Candice Owen, Nomvume Petela, Prof Martin Hill, Melissa Lloyd, Marcel van der Merwe, Francois Joubert, Dr Sean Moore, Associate Prof Julie Coetzee (absent: Tamzin Griffith, Megan Mulchay, Michael Jukes and Sonnica Albertyn)