Focus Areas of Research Team
| RESEARCH TOPICS OF ACADEMIC STAFF | |
| GRAPEVINE BIOLOGY/BIOTECHNOLOGY/ IMPROVEMENT; PRACTICAL
VITICULTURE; DIGITAL VITICULTURE; GRAPEVINE X ENVIRONEMENT X MANAGEMENT
INTERACTONS | |
| Dr Albert Strever | Grapevine cultivation ; Grapevine and climate; Remote sensing |
| Mrs Eunice Avenant | Table grape production (rootstocks, dormancy management, plant bio regulators); Water use efficiency |
| Dr Erna Blancquaert | Ecophysiology of berry ripening ;grapevine abiotic and biotic stress; grapevine resources |
| Dr Carlos Poblete-Echeverria | Precision viticulture and water management |
| Ms Thalita Venter | Practical Viticulture; Vineyard management; Research skills for students |
| Prof Melané Vivier | Grapevine
Biology and Biotechnology; Functional genomics; grapevine field-omics; grapevine abiotic and biotic stress biology |
| Dr John Moore | Grapevine biochemistry and cell wall profiling |
| Dr Philip Young | Functional
genomics; abiotic and biotic stress biology; terpenoid metabolism; flavour and aroma biosynthesis |
| Dr Justin Lashbrooke | Functional genetics and genomics, molecular breeding, secondary metabolism |
BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY OF WINE MICRO-ORGANISMS; MICROBIAL DENSITY, ECOLOGY & EVOLUTION | |
| Prof Florian Bauer | Yeast molecular and cellular biology, NRF Research chair in Integrated Wine Sciences |
| Prof Benoit Divol | Microbial interactions and spoilage – impact of microorganisms on wine properties |
| Prof Maret du Toit | Cellular and molecular biology of lactic acid bacteria (LAB); evaluation of natural LAB resources as potential starter cultures; Yeast-LAB interactions; MLF and wine aroma |
| Dr Evodia Setati | Wine
Microbiology with focus areas in: vineyard and wine microbiomes; population dynamics and microbial interactions |
| Dr Debra Rossouw | Yeast
molecular and cellular biology, lactic acid bacteria, microbial
biotechnology, fermentation, systems biology |
OENOLOGY / WINE PRODUCTION/ SENSORY SCIENCE? | |
| Prof Wessel du Toit | Wine ageing, aroma, wood, phenolics, oxidation, and sensory of wine |
| Dr Marianne McKay | Wine
aroma, wine faults and sensory evaluation of wine. Smoke taint and volatile
phenol interactions; Teaching methodologies: Innovative, collaborative & transformative learning in wine science. |
| Dr Jose Aleixandre | Development of integrated systems to optimize the winemaking process. Phenolic compounds. Winemaking practices. Spectroscopy and chemometrics applications. Static and on-line/in-line applications for process monitoring and optimization. |
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; ADVANCED CHEMICAL-ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES IN VITICULTURE, OENOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY | |
| Dr Hélène Nieuwoudt | Focus
on non-destructive infrared spectroscopic analytical techniques and data
processing, wine sensory profiling, sensometrics, consumer perception |
| Dr Astrid
Buica | Sample
preparation, chromatography, untargeted approaches and data handling for
information-rich techniques (IR, UV/Vis, MS, etc.) |
| Prof Antonio Ferreira | Flavour
chemistry focus on the chemical definition to wine quality. Metabolomics |
