I fell in love with science during the Young Biologist Course at the Two Oceans Aquarium in 2005, so much so that I stayed on for a few years volunteering at the Aquarium. I applied to UCT and did my undergraduate degree in Marine Biology and Ecology but during the course of undergrad I discovered that my interests lied in plant sciences, specifically ecophysiology. I continued on to do Honors in 2011 and completed my Masters in Botany in 2015. During my Masters, after a lot of field and lab work, I specialised in plant ecophysiology with a focus on superior root mechanisms expressed by Fynbos species for their adaptation to the low P soils in the Core Cape Region. I did my PhD (2016-2020) at UCT with a focus on plant growth, stress tolerant traits and the regulation of heat activated proteins in Aspalathus linearis (rooibos), when exposed to elevated temperatures and drought.
South Africa