Jennifer Fitchett

Jennifer holds a BSc Hons (with distinction) and an MSc (with distinction) in Geography from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She graduated in 2011 and 2013. Supervisors: Prof Stefan Grab (WITS) and Dr Dave Thompson (SAEON Ndlovu)

For her Honours Jen examined the effects of climate variability, tree age and management practices on increases in mango yields over the past 15 years at Bavaria Estate, Hoedspruit, South Africa. For her MSc, Jen continued with her research on climate change-phenology interactions, and analysed 50 years of climate and flowering data in a thesis titled 'Phenological response of citrus flowering to climate variability and change in Iran: 1960-2010'.

After completing her Honours and Masters degrees, Jen has continued working with project supervisors preparing papers for publication. Three papers reporting on the results of this work have been published, and a fourth paper reviewing the phenology methodological progress is forthcoming. She is currently completing a PhD in Geography at the University of the Witwatersrand, with a 'split-site' component as an affiliate visiting researcher at University College London. The project involves a multi-proxy Holocene palaeoenvironmental reconstruction for eastern Lesotho, using fossil pollen, diatoms and sedimentology, for a set of four cores from three locations in eastern Lesotho, with bottom age dates ranging from 1700BP through 7000BP, to 14700BP for a very long core.

Further research interests include climatology, and interactions between tourism and the environment. When not in the lab, Jen coaches high school debating.