Since establishing my TREEDOCTOR blog, a few days back, a few folk that have taken a look, have asked where I come from and why I have an interst in the health of trees. Although this is not perhaps the intended aim of the blog, let me post a bit of background.
I suppose a call myself a biologist, but my main education has specialised education has been in the fields of Plant Pathology (the study of plant disease) and entomology (insects). I have spent most of my career studying insect pest and diseases problems of trees. My base is in South Africa but I have had the privilege of being able to work in many countries of the world (North, South and Central America), Africa, Europe and Australasia. I have thus been able to see trees and tree diseases in some of the most incredible parts of the world and as I build this blog, I will share thoughts and images from these experiences.
But let me get back to my home base. For the last twelve years, I have been the director of the most amazing institute known as FABI (Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute) based at the University of Pretoria. If you are interested, visit the FABI Web Site at (www.fabinet.up.ac.za). As you will see, FABI covers fields far beyond that concerning tree diseases. But there are some large key projects that deal with tree health – the Tree Protection Co-operative Programme (TPCP) and the Department of Science and Technogy/ National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence in Tree Health Biotechnology (CTHB).
