I currently hold the position of lecturer in the Plant Pathology division, Plant Sciences, at the University of the Free State (UFS), South Africa. I am teaching an Introductory Plant Pathology course as well as an honours course, Introduction to Plant Disease Epidemiology at the UFS. I am the Principle Investigator in my division for Plant Disease Epidemiology, our group currently consists of six postgraduate students, 1 Hons, 3 MSc and 2 PhD students. Our research group focuses on Sclerotinia diseases of oilseed and -protein crops, soybean seed health, sorghum foliar and grain diseases, as well as fungicide resistance. I enjoy doing the data science components of my research and getting out into the fresh air to conduct our field trials.

I completed my PhD in 2020, and focused on soybean and sunflower stem and head rot, caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, distribution and potential climatic predictors. I was under the supervision of Professor Neal McLaren (UFS) and Professor Emerson Del Ponte, Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), in Brazil.

I have taught myself how to use R and R-studio, under the guidance of my co-supervisor and lab mates at the UFV. I am encouraging the post-graduates in our group to do the same. I provide them with guidance but promote self-learning as this is a heuristic process.

Outside of my academic work, I am also the Blog and Social Media Editor for Open Plant Pathology. I am passionate about Open Science and Reproducible Research. This year, I also started as an Feature Assistant Editor at Phytopathology. I am proud to be part of the American Phytopathology Society: Africa Division, as the secretary of the Education and Teaching Committee.

You can find my full CV here.

 

A work by Lisa A. Rothmann

lisa.ann.rothmann@gmail.com