STOP PRESS! GSN Indibano 2011 is here!

This year’s Indibano will take GSN students to the Addo Elephant National Park, the third largest national park in South Africa, for on-site training. The Indibano is being organised by this year’s GSN Committee. From left: Ander De Lecea, Caswell Munyai, Paula Pattrick, Rachel Cooper, Martin Baloyi and Dirk Snyman. The Indibano will be held at the idyllic Assegaai Trails. A broad range of speakers include Dr Tommy Bornman, Manager of SAEON’s Elwandle Node.

For five days - from 30 October to 3 November - SAEON’s Graduate Student Network (GSN) will be holding its third official annual Indibano.

The theme for this year is “Interdisciplinary Research in Long Term Environmental Observation”.

The 2011 Indibano will be held at the idyllic Assegaai Trails, located between Kenton-on-Sea and Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. Several day walks are easily accessible and a diversity of flora, fauna and interesting rock formations can be observed.

The event will be kept small to facilitate networking among keynote speakers and delegates. A broad range of speakers include Dr Tommy Bornman, Manager of SAEON’s Elwandle Node, Shaun Deyzel, Data and Research Co-ordinator of Elwandle Node’s sentinel site, Martin Villet, Professor of Entomology at Rhodes University, and Professor Charlie Shackleton, Head of the Department of Environmental Science at Rhodes University.

Practical training opportunities

The 2011 GSN Indibano will provide students with an opportunity to hone their statistical skills with a pertinent workshop on the Statistical Program R to be presented by Dr Dawit Yemane from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Furthermore, the Indibano provides students with specific on-site training in the field, with an active learning opportunity scheduled at the Addo Elephant National Park, the third largest national park in South Africa.

The Indibano will be an excellent opportunity for a limited number of GSN members to interact with leading researchers in a wide diversity of scientific and social fields, and to gain experience in long-term environmental observation.

The call for abstracts has been closed, with prospective candidates awaiting results of the adjudication.

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