Sinoxolo Magaya Sinoxolo Magaya, or Snow as she prefers to be called, grew up in two rural communities in South Africa. For her Masters, Snow explored the Indigenous Knowledge Systems used in these two communities in forecasting the weather and making agricultural decisions. She passed her masters with distinction, and from this research has publis…

When Dr Adriaan van der Walt registered for his PhD by publication in 2017, he was undertaking to complete his first degree in English. Until then he had only studied, and published academic research, in Afrikaans. As you can tell from his title, he was successful. So successful, indeed, that he passed with very minor revisions, and published four …

Nelson Nhamutole Nelson Nhamutole is a PhD candidate in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand. His research spans topics in Geology, Palaeobotany and Geoheritage. His first first-authored academic paper was published in the Journal of African Earth Sciences, reporting on new species of conifer wood from the middl…

JJ Gregory Dr JJ Gregory is a Lecturer of Human Geography at the University of Pretoria. He completed his PhD through the University of Johannesburg in the height of the pandemic, and while working at North West University Mafikeng campus. His research broadly focusses on urban geography, with a particular interest in creative industries and studen…

Keegan Fraser For his Honours research project, Keegan explored the accuracy of media reporting on the climatology of Tropical Cyclone Idai, reflecting on the statements of ‘fact’ portayed in these news articles pertaining to the category of the tropical cyclone, the wind speed, amount of rain, flooding and damage. He was awarded the top research p…

Nontobeko Mtshali is the Education and Energy and Environment Editor at The Conversation Africa. The team of editors at The Conversation works with academics to translate their research findings into readable news articles for the public. This provides a valuable platform for science communication, and bridges the gap between pieces written about s…

Dr Jaganmoy Jodder works on some of our earliest rocks and organisms on earth! For his PhD, and first paper, he worked on Archaen rocks. For his postdoc he is working on the earliest microfossils. His first academic paper can be found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030192682100019X Many thanks to GENUS Palaeosciences for f…

Dr Miengah Abrahams is a dino tracker! She works in the Department of Geology at the University of Cape Town, with research focused on ichnology Miengah’s first paper can be found here: https://peerj.com/articles/2285/ And her first first-authored paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08912963.2016.1267164 Her full Google Scholar …

Professor Leslie Swartz is another somewhat unusual guest on this podcast, in that he published his first paper many, many years ago. With an h-index of 62, Leslie has certainly walked the road of revising and resubmitting his work many times. Today he is the Editor in Chief of the South African Journal of Science, and holds not one but two PhDs. L…

Dr Robert Muir is a senior lecturer in sedimentology at the University of the Free State. He completed his undergraduate and PhD at UCT, focusing on sedimentology, stratigraphy and geochronology. His first paper can be found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019566711500052X And his full Google Scholar profile here: https://s…

Bongekile Zwane is a PhD candidate at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, exploring the impacts of the Toba super-eruption in Indonesia 74 ka, on the palaeoenvironment of southern Africa. Her first paper can be found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618220306522?casa_token=aN-o_DU8e…

Dr Kimberley Chapelle is a postdoctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. As a palaeontologist, her work involves CT scanning dinosaurs! A few hours after we recorded this podcast, Kimi's Kimi Chapelle’s research on Massospondylus dinosaur embryos made the Editor’s choice list for Nature’s Scientific Reports. Her fi…

Dr Jason Werbeloff is one of the more unconventional guests on this podcast. He has a PhD in philosophy, but the majority of his publications have been in science fiction: https://www.amazon.com/Jason-Werbeloff/e/B00FOXU2OC%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share He also co-runs his own podcast, Brain in a Vat, you can listen here: https://www.youtube.com/c…

Annabel Fenton is an MA student in Urban Geography exploring the experiences of domestic workers in Johannesburg's northern suburbs. Her first publication is from her Honours research. Her first paper can be found here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12132-019-09384-2 Many thanks to the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence for Palaeoscience for…

Mauro Lourenco is currently pursuing a PhD exploring the palaeoenvironmental record and development of peat in the Angolan Highlands, which form the source waters of the Okavango Delta. His Masters, and first paper, were on a quite different topic. Mauro's first paper can be found here: https://www.ajol.info/index.php/wsa/article/view/204525 Many t…

In this first episode of Revise, Rebut & Resubmit I interview Dr Sarah Roffe, a postdoctoral fellow at the Evolutionary Studies Institute of the University of the Witwatersrand. Sarah's first paper can be found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03736245.2019.1573151 Her full Google Scholar profile can be found here: https://scholar.…