My Research
I am a mycologist specializing in the taxonomy of Aspergillus, Penicillium, Talaromyces, and other moulds, with significant contributions to fungal biodiversity, ecology, and phylogenetics. My goal is to create a system that will allow anybody to work with, identify and describe the new species they encounter.
My most notable achievements include co-authoring influential accepted species lists for these genera, published in landmark papers (Samson et al. 2014, Visagie et al. 2014, Yilmaz et al. 2014) and later expanded to Eurotiales (Houbraken et al. 2020). These publications have been cited over 3,600 times by 2024. More importantly, though, it established crucial reference data for species in this group to be used for identifications and species descriptions. I have described 160 new species across various genera, with many discoveries from South Africa. Current focus areas include 1) a South African Soil Survey that documents species distribution across South Africa using both culture-dependent and -independent approaches, 2) whole genome sequencing of the CMW culture collection housed at FABI, 3) several grain-related projects linked with foliar diseases and mycotoxin production, and 4) an international collaboration through a Marie Curie grant (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2020) investigating novel compound production in fungi (MycoBiomics project). I also co-direct the National Grain Research Platform, which stimulates collaboration between academia (including several universities and research institutes), industry, and government.