SAEON Summit poster competition and abstracts

And the winners were ...

- Marina Joubert, member of organising committee

Twenty-three postgraduate students participated in a research poster competition offered as part of the SAEON Summit. The winners of the competition were announced during the Summit banquet.

Renee le Roux, Manager: Conservation and Management of Ecosystems and Biodiversity at the National Research Foundation, gave feedback on behalf of the judges. She emphasised how impressed they were with the high quality of the posters and the enthusiasm of the students about their research. The other three judges were Mike Rutherford (South African National Biodiversity Institute), Steve Mitchell (Water Research Commission) and Wandile Nomquphu (Department of Water Affairs and Forestry), all active members of the SAEON Technical Steering Committee.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize of R5 000, R3 000 and R2 000 respectively were awarded as follows:

• First: Graham Paul of the Department of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, for his poster Using remote sensing to assess the influence of burn frequency on vegetation growth in response to rainfall, in Pilanesberg National Park.
  
  
• Second: Anthony Swemmer, a South African student who studies at the Colorado State University in the USA, for his poster Evaluating the effect of rainfall on the above-ground net primary productivity of two South African grasslands using long-term data.
  
  
• Third: Shaazia Bhailall of the University of the Witwatersrand was awarded third prize for her poster Air quality monitoring of the South African Highveld using an airborne platform. (Picture © Mitzi du Plessis)

Graham Paul of the University of the Witwatersrand was awarded first prize for his poster Using remote sensing to assess the influence of burn frequency on vegetation growth in response to rainfall, in Pilanesberg National Park. (Picture © Mitzi du Plessis) Anthony Swemmer, a South African student who studies at the Colorado State University in the USA, was the runner-up with a poster entitled Evaluating the effect of rainfall on the above-ground net primary productivity of two South African grasslands using long-term data. (Picture © Mitzi du Plessis) Shaazia Bhailall of the University of the Witwatersrand was awarded third prize for her poster Air quality monitoring of the South African Highveld using an airborne platform. (Picture © Mitzi du Plessis)

Judging the entries in the poster competition was hard work, but fun. Here Renee le Roux (left), Wandile Nomquphu (centre) and Mike Rutherford deliberate on some of the finer points of the adjudication process. (Picture © Mitzi du Plessis) Nicola James and Dr Alan Whitfield of the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity discuss the innovative research approach of some of the posters on display (Picture © Mitzi du Plessis)

In addition to the students' posters, 20 research scientists also put posters on display. Another 10 posters reflected environmental projects of learners who participated in SAEON's educational outreach activities.

Overall, the posters provided valuable opportunities for discussion and engagement between the Summit delegates, and promoted the exchange of research approaches and findings between researchers from the wide range of disciplines involved in SAEON.

Download and view the poster abstracts