{"id":11494,"date":"2020-07-24T13:22:09","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T11:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/?p=11494"},"modified":"2020-07-29T14:10:48","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T12:10:48","slug":"first-postdoctoral-fellow-at-spu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/first-postdoctoral-fellow-at-spu\/","title":{"rendered":"First post-doctoral fellow at SPU"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"11494\" class=\"elementor elementor-11494\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-3eeb13fb elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"3eeb13fb\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-7691b5f2\" data-id=\"7691b5f2\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2d422ede elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"2d422ede\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/sciences-overview\/\">School of Natural and Applied Sciences<\/a> welcomed Dr Zingfa Wala, who is the University\u2019s first post-doctoral fellow, on 1 July 2020. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe School of Natural and Applied Sciences is excited on this momentous occasion in welcoming the very first post-doctoral fellow at SPU, this plays a significant role towards the development of post-doctoral fellowship for the institution. The school is committed to increasing its research outputs by being research active within our key focus areas. The importance of this externally funded post-doctoral fellow is prudent to the continued success of the school as it not only enhances the school\u2019s research capacity but has also established a base for a research partnership between the school and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sanbi.org\/\">South African National Biodiversity Institute<\/a> (SANBI),\u201d said Head of School Professor Aifheli Gelebe.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Zingfa Wala is a doctoral graduate from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uct.ac.za\/\">University of Cape Town<\/a> where he analysed Gauteng birds using citizen-science data from the Southern African Bird Atlas Projects investigating the changes in occurrence and abundance in the region, and the linkages with urban habitat and human population change.<\/p>\n<p>His post-doctoral research will focus on biodiversity informatics curricula linked to data science applications.<\/p>\n<p>This is a SANBI funded position that ties in with their Foundational Biodiversity Information Science division and links to the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gbif.org\/\"> Global Biodiversity Information Facility<\/a> (GBIF). This SANBI-GBIF initiative aims to develop the capacity and skills base of biodiversity informatics professionals and practitioners in the country through the mobilisation, analysis, usage and publication of data.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Wala will be based in the department of Biological and Agricultural Sciences, under the supervision of Dr Doug Harebottle who is the head of department. \u201cAs the department\u2019s first post-doctoral fellow, Dr Wala will be working on Biodiversity Informatics which is a developing yet important field in the biodiversity conservation sciences. He will focus on how data science applications can assist in biodiversity big data analyses and visualisation, and incorporate these into developing appropriate post-graduate curricula. This showcases the inter-departmental and inter-disciplinary nature of Dr Wala\u2019s work as he\u2019ll be working with staff members from both the department of Biological and Agricultural Sciences and the department of Computer Science and Information Technology. His research and teaching experience will contribute immensely to the departments\u201d, said Dr Harebottle.<\/p>\n<p>The School of Natural and Applied Sciences is delighted to have Dr Wala as part of the team in this dynamic and innovative post-doctoral position. We wish him success with his research in the coming year.<\/p>\n<p>Under the current COVID-19 conditions he will work remotely. We look forward to meeting this new member of the SPU community once the lockdown restrictions have eased.&nbsp;<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The School of Natural and Applied Sciences welcomed Dr Zingfa Wala, who is the University\u2019s first post-doctoral fellow, on 1 July 2020. &nbsp; \u201cThe School of Natural and Applied Sciences is excited on this momentous occasion in welcoming the very <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spu.ac.za\/index.php\/first-postdoctoral-fellow-at-spu\/\" class=\"read-more\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,4],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-11494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nas-news","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - 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