Grahamstown has its very own Charles Darwin. That's how significant the scientific community considers research published by Rhodes University botanist, Dr Craig Peter.
Grahamstown has its very own Charles Darwin. That's how significant the scientific community considers research published by Rhodes University botanist, Dr Craig Peter.
Peter, of the university's Department of Botany, was one of two joint winners of the South African Association of Botanists Bronze Medal, for the best PhD thesis in 2009, and among several Eastern Cape scientists acknowledged for ground-breaking research, at the association's 37th annual conference, in Grahamstown last week.
Peter studied the ecological and evolutionary aspects of the pollination biology of Eulophia, a large and important genus of African orchids. His supervisor, Professor Steve Johnson of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, said a chapter in Peter's thesis confirmed one of Darwin’s original hypotheses about unusual and sometimes very rapid movement of the pollen masses of some orchid flowers and was only the second paper on this topic since Darwin’s original observations nearly 150 years ago.
He said the scientific community had its own "Darwin" in its midst.
A Masters research project by Taryn Martin that helps predict how different grasses will respond to fires earned her an award for outstanding academic achievement in Range and Forest Science.
Martin's findings also help explain why certain grasses dominate in frequently burnt, but not arid environments. A paper detailing the unique vegetation of the Sneeuberg – the mountain range which lies between Graaff Reinet and Cradock – was named Best Publication in the SA Journal of Botany for 2009.
Authors Dr Ralph Clark, post-doctoral fellow at Rhodes – whose Ph.D thesis was the starting point for the paper, Professor Nigel Barker, head of Rhodes botany department, and Professor Laco Mucina were awarded the Compton Prize for the best paper published in the 2009 issues of the South African Journal of Botany.
Incoming president of the association was Dr Nokwanda (Noks) Makunga, a Senior Lecturer in Botany at Stellenbosch University. A graduate of the University of Fort Hare and KwaZulu-Natal, Nokwanda started her academic career at DSG, in Grahamstown, in the 1990s. She is the daughter of Professor Oswald Makunga, formerly of the botany department of the University of Fort Hare, and also the first black woman president of the South African Association of Botanists.
The 2012 conference will be held at the University of Pretoria.
