Prof. Steven L Chown
K E Y N O T E
Steven L. Chown is Professor of Biological Sciences at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, and Director of Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, an Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative. His research concerns biodiversity variation through space and time, and the conservation implications of environmental change, including the means to mitigate it. He co-developed the field of macrophysiology – the investigation of large-scale patterns in and processes underlying physiological variation and their ecological implications. Owing to his capability in the science-policy interface, for many years he has represented the international Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), of which he was also President (2016-2021), at the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, providing scientific advice on a broad range of environmental and science policy matters. Steven has published more than 450 primary research papers, a text on insect physiological ecology and several popular volumes. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa. For his science and policy work in the Antarctic, he has received the South African Antarctic Gold Medal, the inaugural Tinker-Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica, the SCAR Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research, and the French Republic’s Medal of the 30th Anniversary of the Madrid Protocol.
Dr Sheunesu Ruwanza
K E Y N O T E
Dr Sheunesu Ruwanza holds a PhD in Botany and an MSc in Conservation Ecology from Stellenbosch University. Prior to that, he graduated with an MSc in Environmental Policy and Planning and a BSc Honours degree in Geography from University of Zimbabwe. He is a Y2 National Research Foundation (NRF, RSA) rated scientist and since 2018, a core team member of the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology (C·I·B). Dr Ruwanza is currently a senior lecturer in the Department of Environmental Science at Rhodes University. His research areas are ecological ecology, biological invasion, and plant and soil interaction. He conducts impactful research in ecological restoration and biological invasion, producing results that positively improve people’s lives as well as contributing to environmental conservation. Besides communicating his research in scientific journals, he also mentors young South Africans and is committed to developing emerging scientists and environmentalists.
Prof. Camille Parmesan
K E Y N O T E
Camille Parmesan is Director of Research at the CNRS Station for Experimental and Theoretical Ecology (SETE, in Moulis, France) as a “Make Our Planet Great Again” Laureate. Her research focuses on the impacts of climate change on wild plants and animals and spans from field-based work on butterflies to synthetic analyses of global impacts on a broad range of species across terrestrial and marine biomes. Her expertise in responses of insects to global warming has led to participation in assessments of impacts of climate change on agricultural pests and on human health, through changes in insect vectors of disease. Parmesan has received numerous awards and recognitions, including authoring the most highly cited paper in the field of climate change (Carbon Brief, 2015) and being ranked the 2nd highest-cited author in this field by T Reuters. She is an elected Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the Ecological Society of America and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society. She has worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for >20 years, and is an official Contributor to IPCC’s Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. She is currently a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. She also holds the National Marine Aquarium Chair in Oceans and Public Health at the University of Plymouth (UK) and is an Adjunct Professor in Geological Sciences at University of Texas at Austin (USA)
Prof. Guy Midgley
Guy Midgley has worked in the fields of global change and biodiversity science since the 1980s, including a 32-year career at the South African National Biodiversity Institute. He took up a Professorship at Stellenbosch University (Botany and Zoology) in 2014. He has held lead roles in international scientific assessments (IPCC 4th, 5th and 6th Assessments, CBD ad hoc Technical Expert Group, and IPBES Global Assessments) and national level syntheses for climate change policy guidance. With over 170 publications, he holds an NRF A-rating, has been a Thomson Reuters highly cited researcher (2014), and is rated amongst the top 200 most influential climate change scientists globally (2021). He is a holder of the SA Royal Society Marloth Medal and Humboldt Foundation Research Award for lifetime science contributions.
Prof. Sibusiso Moyo
Professor Sibusiso Moyo’s current position is Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research, Innovation, and Postgraduate Studies at Stellenbosch University. She holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Natal, Durban and a Masters (with distinction) in Tertiary Education Management from the LH Martin Institute, University of Melbourne Australia. As a scholar, she has published widely in the Mathematical Sciences with a focus on differential equations and optimization problems in international peer reviewed journals. She has also successfully supervised postgraduate students and continues mentoring and supervising at Master’s and Doctoral level. She has served in various capacities and levels at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) as Associate Director and Professor in
the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics and Director Research and Postgraduate Support up to mid-2017. She is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management published by Taylor and Francis and has served as Guest Editor of the Mathematical Methods in the Applied Sciences Journal (published by John Wiley & Sons) and
Journal of Engineering Mathematics (published by Springer). She is also board member for Agenda Feminist Media (which hosts the Agenda journal published by Taylor & Francis). At DUT, Professor Moyo was responsible for driving the research, innovation and engagement agenda including supporting student entrepreneurship and innovation through the newly established DUT Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She was part of the DUT Founding team that has established two start up entrepreneurial desks which acted as student incubators both in the Midlands and Durban campuses established in 2018. In 2019 and 2021,
she was awarded the special national Entrepreneurial Development in Higher Education (EDHE) award to a Deputy Vice-Chancellor responsible for facilitating remarkable institutional support for entrepreneurship development in terms of student entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship in academia and in growing an entrepreneurial university. She currently serves as Chairperson of the Board of Directors for CASME (Center for the Advancement of Science and Mathematics Education) and is board member on the boards of
Innovate Durban, the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Advisory Board for the Future Professors Programme and innobiz. She is Honorary Dean of the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Tianjin Vocational Institute, Tianjin, China from 2021 to 2023; and was co-Dean of the Confucius Institute from 2018 to August 2022.
The Centre for Invasion Biology (C·I·B)
– Annual Research Meeting 2022 –
A hybrid event held in both the Broom lecture theatre & online via www.ciblive.co.za
| Programme | ||
from 8:00 | Log-in, or welcome to the venue! | Please join the meeting with your microphone muted. |
Click on the link to join the meeting room to be ready when the session starts at 8:20 | Use the purple support button on the bottom-right of | |
08:30 | Ground rules and resources | Core team member Dr Sabrina Kumschick with Prof. Guy |
08:40 | Opening remarks | Prof. Sibusiso Moyo, Vice-Rector Research |
08:45 | The Case for a C·I·B and its Long-Term Research | Prof. Steven L. Chown, Monash University Melbourne & |
09:10 | Acknowledgement; and introduction | Guy Midgley |
09:15 | My CIB personal and research trajectory – how invaded ecosystems recover. | Dr Sheunesu Ruwanza |
09:45 | Questions and audience discussion | |
09:55 | Tea time | |
10:20 | POD 1: Invasion ecology & dynamics | Introduced & chaired by Dr Luke Potgieter |
Melaleuca (Myrtaceae): biogeography of an | Michèle ter Huurne, Masters candidate | |
An analysis of morphological and physiological | Sipho Mbonani, PhD candidate | |
The effects of microclimates on different life | Gaylen Carelse, Masters candidate | |
Locomotor performance | Laurie Araspin, PhD candidate | |
11:05 | POD 2: Impacts of biological invasions | Introduced & chaired by Dr Laura Fernandez Winzer |
Impact of invasive fish on ghost frog tadpoles. | Dan Van Blerk, Masters candidate | |
Kelp forests as understudied systems in marine | Clara Steyn, PhD candidate | |
The impact of invasive plants on South African Soils: Australian Acacia species as a case Study | Mokgatla Rapetsoa, pre-PhD | |
The influence of invasive alien trees on species rich- | Tashreeqah Sadan, Masters candidate | |
The status of Alien fleshy-fruited Myrtaceae species in | Tumeka Mbobo, PhD candidate | |
11:50 | Brief recess | |
12:05 | Second plenary – Impacts of climate change on species and implications for conservation | Camille Parmesan, Director, Theoretical and Experimental Ecology (SETE), France |
12:35 | questions and audience discussion | |
12:45 | Break for lunch | |
14:00 | Welcome back & ARM Group Photo | Sabrina Kumschick |
14:15 | POD 3: Policy and management | Introduced & chaired by Dr Julia van Velden |
Developing a Protocol for Declaring Alien Species | Chelsey Matthys, Masters candidate | |
Predicting the time it takes and the best-localised | Jonathan Bell, Masters candidate | |
The use of fire and herbicide (Impala 480 EC) in an | Phuluso Mudau, PhD candidate | |
Is remote sensing a viable tool in the detection and | Alekzandra Szewczuk, PhD candidate | |
14:50 | Brief recess | |
15:00 | POD 4: Post-invasion Restoration: problems | Introduced & chaired by Dr Emily McCulloch-Jones |
Analysis of stable isotope ratios of historical & recent samples of invasive & indigenous rodents: Implications for urbanization in Gauteng Province, South Africa. | Armand Engelbrecht, Masters candidate | |
Delaying a prescribed burn to scale up restoration of | Duduzile Ngwenya, PhD candidate | |
Collembola as indicators of restoration progress | Marizanne Visagie, Masters candidate | |
More than a Decade of Community Involvement in | Bheka Nxele, PhD candidate | |
15:45 | Biological Invasions and climate change- | Guy Midgley |
Student presentation awards and closing remarks | ||
16:30 | Thank you for participating in the C·I·B’s Annual Research Meeting for 2022 | |
