I am a Masters student in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town (UCT), working on the ecology and evolutionary biology of the Cape flora, the world’s smallest floristic kingdom and a centre of a plant biodiversity.

Read more about my Masters here.

I am also the Student Representative on the Southern African Association of Systematic Biology (SASSB), where I am working to create a more inter-connected and active community of young systematists and evolutionary biologists in southern Africa. More details on this to come!

One page CV
Full CV

Left: Me with Protea cynaroides, South Africa's national flower, and a striking example of typical Protea inflorescence morphology (Fernkloof Nature Reserve, South Africa, 2018). Right: Height comparison of me (ca. 190 cm) and Tetraria thermalis culm and inflorescence (Houwhoek area, Kogelberg Nature Reserve, South Africa, 2018). T. thermalis is one of my study species for my Masters.

Posing beside the Liesbeek River, Cape Town, following my (first ever) paper on isotopic tracing of its stormwater during a winter rainstorm. Read the press release here! Find out more here. (Photo © 2018 Je'nine May.)

Interests

My core interests are in comparative biology, macroecology, macroevolution, phylogenetic systematics, biogeography, plant ecophysiology and evolutionary biology in general.

I am most interested and work most with plants (hence the title of this website), but I do have a strong interest in animal ecology and evolution as well. I’d describe myself as being genuinely fascinated by almost any taxa, from ferns, mosses, magnolias and daisies to cetaceans, artiodactyls, spiders and gastropods.

My current “pet taxa” include, but are not limited to:

• Tetraria (Cyperaceae, tribe Schoeneae), a genus of morphologically diverse sedges rich in the Cape flora. This is one of the major clades concerned in my Masters work.
• Trifolium (Fabaceae)—the clovers. I just think they’re neat.
• Grasses (Poaceae) in general (due to my being one of Tony Verboom’s students)
• Aroids (Araceae), like Monstera deliciosa and Philodendron spp. One can’t help but develop an interest in these after a while when you have many as house plants.

I also have a passion for the statistical programming language R and more broadly computational methods in ecology and evolutionary studies. I have a keen interest in applying data science and big data approaches to my work. You can find my programming work on GitHub.

Contact

ruanvmazijk@gmail.com

Department of Biological Sciences
Private Bag X3
Rondebosch
7701
Cape Town
South Africa