Biological Invasions in South Africa

Brian W. van Wilgen is Emeritus Professor at the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His interests include applied ecology and the development of evidence-based approaches to conservation management in Africa and beyond. His work has focussed mainly on fire ecology and biological invasions, and he has published over 250 peer-reviewed journal papers and book chapters.

John Measey is Chief Researcher at the NRF-DST Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology, based in the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He is author/co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed journal papers and chapters in edited books. His research focuses on animal invasions, especially those of reptiles and amphibians.

David M. Richardson is Director of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology and a Distinguished Professor of Ecology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His research focuses mainly on plant invasions, especially trees and shrubs. He is author/co-author of over 430 peer-reviewed journal papers and chapters in edited books. He has edited/co-edited six books, including Fifty years of invasion ecology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) and is co-author of Invasion Dynamics (Oxford University Press; 2017).

John R. Wilson is the science lead for the South African National Biodiversity Institute's Biological Invasions Directorate. He is author/co-author of over 120 papers in peer-reviewed journals with a particular focus on invasion science, and was the lead author of a recent book on detecting and responding to alien plant incursions (Cambridge University Press; 2017). He is a member of the IUCN's Invasive Species Specialist Group, and works across science, management, and policy (e.g. as a lead editor of South Africa's National Status Report on Biological Invasions, and current chair of the South African Alien Species Risk Analysis Review Panel).

Tsungai Zengeya is a senior researcher in the Biological Invasions Directorate at the South African National Biodiversity Institute and leads up the team producing the South African National Status Report on Biological Invasions. His research interests are in aquatic ecology, with a focus on understanding the impacts of, and managing and preventing biological invasions. His is also a core team member of the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology at University of Pretoria, South Africa.