Sinoxolo Magaya

Sinoxolo Magaya, or Snow as she prefers to be called, grew up in two rural communities in South Africa. For her Masters, Snow explored the Indigenous Knowledge Systems used in these two communities in forecasting the weather and making agricultural decisions. She passed her masters with distinction, and from this research has published one book chapter in an edited volume, and has a journal article currently under review. During her Masters, Snow worked as a writing fellow for Geography 1. Snow is currently studying towards her PhD at VU Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

Snow's first book chapter can be found here:

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-99411-2_7

And her profile at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam here: 

https://research.vu.nl/en/persons/sinoxolo-magaya

When Dr Adriaan van der Walt registered for his PhD by publication in 2017, he was undertaking to complete his first degree in English. Until then he had only studied, and published academic research, in Afrikaans. As you can tell from his title, he was successful. So successful, indeed, that he passed with very minor revisions, and published four papers from his PhD. Adriaan is currently working as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of the Free State, serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Biometeorology, and is the mentee Associate Editor: Earth and Environment for the South African Journal of Science. He has published in some of the top local and international journals, including the South African Journal of Science, the South African Geographical Journal, Theoretical and Applied Climatology and the International Journal of Climatology

Adriaan's first (English language) paper can be found here:

http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/sajs/v116n9-10/14.pdf

And his full Google Scholar profile can be found here:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8d7u-goAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

This podcast is generously supported by GENUS: The DSI-NRF Centre for Palaeosciences

Nelson Nhamutole

Nelson Nhamutole is a PhD candidate in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. His research spans topics in Geology, Palaeobotany and Geoheritage. His first first-authored academic paper was published in the Journal of African Earth Sciences, reporting on new species of conifer wood from the middle Permian in Mozambique.

Nelson’s Journal of African Earth Sciences paper can be found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1464343X21002247

JJ Gregory

Dr JJ Gregory is a Lecturer of Human Geography at the University of Pretoria. He completed his PhD through the University of Johannesburg in the height of the pandemic, and while working at North West University Mafikeng campus. His research broadly focusses on urban geography, with a particular interest in creative industries and studentification. JJ is the chair of the Society of South African Geographers Students and New Professionals Group, and is involved in ongoing policy work around student housing in urban centres of South Africa. JJ’s first academic paper was published in Local Economy: The Journal of the Local Economy Policy Unit, reflecting on creative industries and urban regeneration in the case of the Maboneng Precinct, Johannesburg. He has since published extensively on creative industries, studentification, and even Instagram.

His first paper can be found here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0269094215618597

His Google Scholar Profile can be found here:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4UvPKUwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra

Keegan Fraser

For his Honours research project, Keegan explored the accuracy of media reporting on the climatology of Tropical Cyclone Idai, reflecting on the statements of ‘fact’ portayed in these news articles pertaining to the category of the tropical cyclone, the wind speed, amount of rain, flooding and damage. He was awarded the top research project mark in his class for this work, the Stanley Jackson prize for the top Geography Honours student, and the Society of South African Geographers Award for top Honours project in the country. A few weeks ago, a paper from his research was accepted for publication in the international journal Weather, Climate and Society. Keegan is currently studying towards an MSc in Geography, focusing on a quite different topic, constructing a liveability index for Pretoria that could be used by the insurance sector.

Keegan’s first paper can be found here: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/wcas/aop/WCAS-D-21-0085.1/WCAS-D-21-0085.1.xml

Many thanks to GENUS Palaeoscience for supporting this podcast

Nontobeko Mtshali is the Education and Energy and Environment Editor at The Conversation Africa. The team of editors at The Conversation works with academics to translate their research findings into readable news articles for the public. This provides a valuable platform for science communication, and bridges the gap between pieces written about science by non-scientists, and the scientific outputs themselves. Having worked with The Conversation for many years, writing pieces that break down my research outputs, and writing commissioned articles on current climate events, I am very excited to have Nontobeko on this podcast to talk about the process followed at The Conversation Africa. I should also mention that my own first podcast appearance was on The Conversation’s podcast Pasha, run by Ozayr Patel.

The Conversation Africa can be found here: https://theconversation.com/africa

And The Coversation Africa's podcast Pasha can be found here: https://theconversation.com/africa/podcasts/pasha-theconversation-africa

Many thanks to GENUS Palaeoscience for supporting this podcast.

Dr Jaganmoy Jodder works on some of our earliest rocks and organisms on earth! For his PhD, and first paper, he worked on Archaen rocks. For his postdoc he is working on the earliest microfossils. 

His first academic paper can be found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030192682100019X

Many thanks to GENUS Palaeosciences for funding this podcast.

Dr Miengah Abrahams is a dino tracker! She works in the Department of Geology at the University of Cape Town, with research focused on ichnology

Miengah’s first paper can be found here: https://peerj.com/articles/2285/

And her first first-authored paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08912963.2016.1267164

Her full Google Scholar profile can be found here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jNV71pUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra

Many thanks, as always, to GENUS Palaeosciences for so enthusiastically supporting this podcast. 

Professor Leslie Swartz is another somewhat unusual guest on this podcast, in that he published his first paper many, many years ago. With an h-index of 62, Leslie has certainly walked the road of revising and resubmitting his work many times. Today he is the Editor in Chief of the South African Journal of Science, and holds not one but two PhDs. 

Leslie's Google Scholar profile, with the extensive list of publications over the past 40 years, can be found here:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tZXC_70AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

And you can find the South African Journal of Science here:

https://www.sajs.co.za

Many thanks, as always, to GENUS Palaeosciences for their support in the production of this podcast. 

Dr Robert Muir is a senior lecturer in sedimentology at the University of the Free State. He completed his undergraduate and PhD at UCT, focusing on sedimentology, stratigraphy and geochronology. 

His first paper can be found here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019566711500052X

And his full Google Scholar profile here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PVts8NQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra

Many thanks to GENUS Palaeosciences for supporting this podcast.