Julie Coetzee is Associate Professor in the Centre for Biological Control at Rhodes University, South Africa. Dr Coetzee completed her PhD at the University of the Witswatersrand, and her primary interest is plant-insect interactions, in the applied context of biological control of invasive species. She works on both floating and submerged aquatic weeds, and currently focuses on regime shift and resilience aspects of the invasion ecology of this suite of plants. Other interests include insect physiology, species distribution modelling, aquatic plant ecology and biostatistics.

My research activities focus on host-parasite interactions in the context of emerging zoonoses and changing environments (i.e. human disturbance, biological invasions). I lead an integrative research using both correlative and experimental approaches that combine concepts and methods from community ecology, parasitology, immunoecology, molecular biology and biostatistics. I conduct my research on different parasites/pathogen communities (bacteria, viruses, protozoa, helminths) circulating in small mammal populations (especially rodents) from natural and anthropized environments. I completed my PhD thesis in December 2015 (Universities of Montpellier, France and Dakar, Senegal) on the relationships between parasite communities, host immunity and invasion success of the black rat and the domestic mouse. I have performed my first post-doctoral (IRD-CBGP Montpellier, France) research on the spatio-temporal dynamics of wild rodents and their parasite communities (helminths and zoonotic bacteria) in an environmental change context. I am currently also interested in tackling the ecological and socio-economic issues associated with biological invasions at global and local scales using additional tools such as data mining, meta-analysis and modelling approaches. In my current post-doctoral research (Paris-Saclay University-ESE, Orsay, France), I conduct meta-analyses and develop predictive approaches on the worldwide impact of invasive alien species.

Since 2000, I’ve been studying how one avian species, the house sparrow, has managed to colonize most of the planet. Through long-term work in Panama and Kenya and other studies in Senegal, Vietnam, Australia, Argentina, and several sites across Europe, my students, colleagues and I have found that particular changes in the behavior, stress physiology, and immune defenses of individual sparrows affected their ability to colonize new areas. Most recently, we have begun to study epigenetic processes underlying invasions, as one form of epigenetic variation (DNA methylation) is instrumental to the phenotypic plasticity that is so important to the success of some invaders. Over the last ~10 years, we have found that part of the reason that the house sparrow might be such a pest is its propensity to use DNA methylation to sculpt its physiology and behavior to local conditions. In particular, we find that the genomic substrates for epigenetic variation, something we’ve termed epigenetic potential, seem to have been especially important in range expansions of this species.

Since 1989, Dr Abdoulaye Ndiaye has been an active member of Senegal Crop Protection Direction (DPV, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Equipment) where he first worked as a Head of the Departmental Office in Louga and Thiès (1992-1995), then as the Chief of the Agricultural Warning Base of the southern Agro-ecological Zone in Kolda (1995-1997). In 2002-2005, he completed his cursus in agronomy that finally led to a PhD in Acridology passed at the Hassan II Agronomic Institute in Agadir and Rabat, Morocco, in 2007. Back to Senegal, Dr Ndiaye became Head of the Intervention Office of the DPV where he was in charge of the phytosanitary management across the whole country. In 2009, he was designated Chief of the Phytosanitary Legislation Division and Plant Quarantine by the Minister of Agriculture. He has been assisting the DPV Director in designing and implementing the national phytosanitary politics as well as in organizing and supervising services of phytosanitary control. In addition, he is currently the focal point for CIPV/IPPC and national focal point for Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Information (SPS/OMC).

Sebataolo Rahlao is a Director of Biological Invasions at the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI – www.sanbi.org). He manages large teams working on; 1) Early detection, eradication planning and coordination of emerging invasive alien species (IAS) in South Africa, 2) Research relating to taxonomy and risk analyses of IAS, 3) Data and information management on biological invasions, 4) the National Status Report and Monitoring relating to biological invasions, and 5) Intergraded Advocacy and awareness raising on risks posed by biological invasions, and their management. Dr. Rahlao was born and raised in the Kingdom of Lesotho and he holds an MSc from University of Cape Town and a PhD from Stellenbosch University, in South Africa. He has published a number of papers in peer reviewed journals and supervises postgraduate students on biological invasions. He is also a part-time lecturer and research associate at the University of Cape Town (http://www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za/) and a core-research  team member of the Centre for Invasion Biology at Stellenbosch University (http://academic.sun.ac.za/cib/)

Daniel Simberloff is the Nancy Gore Hunger Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Tennessee.  He received his A.B. (1964) and Ph.D. (1968) from Harvard University and was a faculty member at Florida State University from 1968 through 1997, when he joined the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee.  His publications number ca. 500 and center on ecology, biogeography, evolution, and conservation biology; much of his research focuses on causes, consequences, and management of biological invasions.  His research projects are on insects, plants, fungi, birds, and mammals. He is editor-in-chief of Biological Invasions, senior editor of the Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions (2012), author of Invasive Species: What Everyone Needs to Know (2013), co-editor of Integrating Biological Control into Conservation Practice (2016), and serves on the editorial boards of several journals.  In 2006 he was named Eminent Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America, in 2012 he won the Margalef Prize for research in ecology, and in 2015 he won the Wallace Prize of the International Biogeography Society for lifetime contributions.  He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.