Gugu Mabizela

Biography:

Gugu S. Mabizela was born in Newcastle (Madadeni), a small town in KwaZulu-Natal where she matriculated in 2006. After completing her undergraduate studies at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), she joined the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) as a PDP student in 2012. She received her M.Tech in Horticulture from TUT in May 2015 and is currently registered as a PhD student in the Horticulture Department of the Science Faculty at TUT. The title of her PhD study is “Metabolic profiling of Cyclopia subternata and C. genistoides in response to drought stress and seasonal variation” and aims to complete it in 2019. During her Master’s studies, Ms Mabizela published an article in the South African Journal of Botany on the effect of growth media, plant growth regulators and clone on rooting potential of Cyclopia subternata stem cuttings at different planting dates. Ms Mabizela received a fellowship to attend and present at the International Conference on Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in Sandton during November 2015 and presented at eight other conferences in South Africa. In 2016 she gave a poster presentation at the 20th Eucarpia General Congress at ETH in Zurich. In 2018 Ms Gugu Mabizela received full sponsorships from DowDuPont to cover all her expenses to attend the SA Plant Breeders Association Conference. She also had the privilege to present in the DowDuPont Plant Sciences Symposium, together with Dr Geoff Graham (DuPont Pioneer Research Vice President for Global Plant Breeding, DuPont Pioneer, and Des Moines, Iowa, USA) and three other sponsored students. At the end of her studies, Ms Mabizela would like to make a significant impact in the agriculture research community by applying her acquired skills and experience in this field. Ms Mabizela is currently residing in Stellenbosch, Western Cape where she is undertaking her research with the ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij.