Friday, 8 August marked a significant milestone for our 2025 Honours students in the Department of Genetics and the  the Institute for Plant Biotechnology and breeding  (IPBB) programme. After completing an intense six-month series of theory modules, they took their first bold step into the laboratory phase of their academic journey, presenting their project proposals to staff, postdoctoral fellows, and fellow students.

The Genetics and IPBB Honours groups presented  their work in different venues:

In the Genetics Department’s Seminar Room, the flash presentations  spanned an impressive range of topics, from important crops such as grapevine, wheat, raspberries and detection protocols in Candidatus, to aquaculture research on dusky kob, and studies on other species like guitarfish. Presentations also covered human genetics,  including the pathogenesis of ageing and Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)  and animal genetics, featuring work on snakes such as the Gaboon viper.

Meanwhile, in the Natural Sciences Building, the IPBB students took a different approach. Standing beside their posters like custodians of their research, they engaged curious audience members who stopped by. Instead of timed flash talks, they offered concise, on-the-spot explanations, creating an interactive and conversational atmosphere around their work. Their research topics were just as diverse,  from alternative protein sources for food, beans, and marula oil, to salinity stress in Thinopyrum distichum, phenomics, sugarcane, potatoes, and coffee.

I attended both venues, and both buzzed with energy as staff and postdocs circulated, posing challenging questions and offering guidance to sharpen research objectives. Despite the differences in format between IPBB and Genetics, one thing was certain: the research was solid, and the creativity in both scientific ideas and poster designs was evident.

“This is where the real work begins,” one staff member remarked. “They’ve done the groundwork ,  now they get to apply it, experiment, and  discover.”

As your departmental scribe, I can’t help but reflect on my own Honours journey at IPBB. Thus can I say; In science, the pursuit is rarely a straight path to the “next big discovery.” More often, it is a gradual awakening,  a process of finding your rhythm, learning to think with both precision and creativity, and allowing the questions to shape you as much as you shape the answers.

The months ahead will test patience and persistence with long hours in the lab, relentless data analysis, and challenges that seem insurmountable. Yet, within those very moments lies the quiet thrill of discovery  not just of new knowledge, but of the scientist you are becoming!

Goodluck!
Composed by The Department Scribe – M. Le Roux