The CASABIO board
The CASABIO board members are a diverse group of people, all of whom share a love of nature and a desire to contribute towards raising the profile of our unique flora in the public eye and ensuring its continued health. In no particular order, we are as follows:
Dave Gwynne-Evans was born in Cape Town and loved exploring the wilds of Kirstenbosch as a kid. He has always held a fondness for nature and, while at University, has spent the majority of his spare time "botanising" i.e. exploring wild areas of Southern Africa, and collecting and photographing plants, along with other enthusiasts. This exploration has uncovered many rare and unusual findings and even several undiscovered species. Dave initiated the CASABIO project in response to the outdated methods of data capture, storage and syndication that he observed in his dealings with herbaria, and inaccessibility of Botany for the man on the street. Dave is currently completing his Phd at the University of Cape Town, with a thesis which focusses on the taxonomy of the genus Hermannia.
Adam Harrower is an extremely practical person, having dabbled in electronics, woodwork, gardening and bonsai at school. He went on to focus on plants during his undergraduate degree in Botany at the University of Cape Town. He subsequently worked at Kew Gardens in England for a year, before returning to Cape Town and taking up a position with the South African National Botanical Institute (SANBI) at Kirstenbosch. In 2003 he was appointed as manager of the Ball seed project, in which capacity he has travelled the length and breadth of the country in search of plants with horticultural potential for the local and international markets, and made many exciting discoveries. Adam is also a keen hobbyist, with a particular interest in growing succulent plants and Bonsai trees. Adam is also an active member of the Friends of the Arderne Gardens, where he is currently involved in an attempt to correctly label the plant species which occur in the gardens.
Rupert Koopman is a relative newcomer to botany, yet has made tremendous strides in both his knowledge of the flora, and taking on increasingly important jobs. After obtaining a botany degree, he worked as a botanist doing EIA's for a consultancy before landing his current position within Cape Nature and SANBI (South African National Biodiversity Institute). His current job includes mapping the vegetation of Namaqualand up the West Coast of South Africa. His expertise is a tremendous boon upon the CASABIO team.
Marta de Ponte Machado's fascination of nature is inspirational. She brings tremendous energy and fun to any circumstance, and when she's not pursuing her PhD on pelicans, she is usually to be found immersing herself in nature with her zoom lens firmly fixed to her camera. Although specialising in birds and demographics with the Avian Demography Unit, it is her practicality and decisiveness that win her a well-deserved place on the CASABIO board.
Dan Wilson grew up in Hout Bay, where much of his childhood was spent exploring the mountains and visiting nature reserves with family and friends. During the course of his undergraduate degree at UCT, his love of plants was ignited under the influence of Dave and Adam, whom he accompanied on numerous botanical expeditions. After a year living abroad and several years of struggle and toil, he completed his Masters degree in Botany, producing a thesis which focussed on air pollution as a potential threat to the plants of the CMA. Over the course of a chequered career, he has worked as a barman, a salesman at a nursery, an english teacher, a copy editor and a video games tester (!) amongst other things. Dan is also a keen musician and writer, with many of his music reviews having been published in newspapers and on the internet.
After completing his masters thesis examining the impact of alien invasives on the biodiversity of the Cape's riparian fringes, Ryan Blanchard obtained a post at the Institute for Plant Conservation. Being a scientific diver, he has proven to be resourceful and unafraid of challenges.
Rhys Lloyd currently owns several companies focussing on technology, bringing experience and business acumin to board meetings. He is a brilliant problem solver, and regularly tackles challenges to further technology within South Africa.
Caleb Lyness, graduated from the Computer Visualization Centre masters in 2004. While doing this he created the initial database for CAPEBIO. He subsequently moved to Germany where he pursued married life and the improvement of his programming skills. He agreed to create the pilot CASABIO database for a nominal fee, and continues to work on the structure of the database in order to make it available on the internet. He is back to his native Cape Town since beginning of the year.