Introducing the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Underutilised Crops Research

AOSIS is proud to introduce Dr. Ethel Phiri as the Editor-in-Chief of the recently established Journal of Underutilised Crops Research (JUCR), a peer-reviewed online journal that aims to publish high-quality articles promoting research on indigenous, neglected, and underutilised crops. 

Dr. Phiri is a Lecturer / Researcher in Sustainable Agriculture at Stellenbosch University. Her research focus includes amongst other underutilised and indigenous crops, sustainable crop production and protection, indigenous knowledge, climate change, food security, molecular systematics and phylogeography of underutilised crops, molecular plant physiology, next generation sequencing, and genotyping-by-sequencing.

Dr. Phiri is well renowned academic with an impressive list of awards and recognitions. In 2017 she received the Inaugural Vice-Rector’s Postdoctoral Fellow Award for Exceptional Achievement at Stellenbosch University. She was nominated as one of the top 7 Young South Africans of the Year of 2014 by ANN7. She was awarded the bronze medal  by the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science (S2A3) for original research at Masters’ level in a scientific discipline.

Besides from academics, Dr. Phiri is a social impact committee member at the faculty of Agrisciences at Stellenbosch University. She is also the Co-Director of The Small Things Fund – “A relational student crowdfunding initiative in South Africa”. This Non-Profit Company focus on mentoring university students who are set to become First Generation Graduates in their families.

We are honoured to welcome Dr Phiri to the AOSIS family, and we look forward to her impact on this exciting new scholarly journal.

(Article: Introducing the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Underutilised Crops Research)