{"id":7147,"date":"2025-04-24T13:50:42","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T11:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/?p=7147"},"modified":"2025-04-30T13:32:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T11:32:51","slug":"passing-of-renowned-c%c2%b7i%c2%b7b-herpetologist-met-with-shock-and-sadness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/passing-of-renowned-c%c2%b7i%c2%b7b-herpetologist-met-with-shock-and-sadness\/","title":{"rendered":"Passing of renowned C\u00b7I\u00b7B herpetologist met with shock and sadness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Centre for Invasion Biology (C\u00b7I\u00b7B) and the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University (SU) were shocked to learn of the passing of Dr John Measey (57) following a mountain bike accident in China on 19 April 2025.<\/p>\n

At the time of his death, Dr Measey was an Extraordinary Professor in the Department of Botany and Zoology and a member of the Centre for Invasion Biology\u2019s (C\u00b7I\u00b7B) core team.<\/p>\n

According to Prof. Dave Richardson, former director of the C\u00b7I\u00b7B and a close colleague, said John Measey was a permanent employee of Stellenbosch University between 2014 and 2022 during which time he was a highly valued member of the C\u00b7I\u00b7B\u2019s core team and supervised 41 post-graduate students.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr Measey was a globally respected herpetologist who made crucial contributions to the knowledge of the ecology and conservation status of amphibians and reptiles, especially in South Africa but also in many other parts of the world. He was the world expert on the African clawed frog or platanna (Xenopus laevis), a native African amphibian which is invasive in several parts of the world.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cDr Measey also made major contributions to invasion ecology (the study of introduced and invasive species) more generally and was co-editor of the encyclopaedic book Biological invasions in South Africa that was published in 2020,\u201d Prof. Richardson added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since 2022, Dr Measey had been dividing his time between China, where he had a part-time appointment at Yunnan University in Kunming province, and Stellenbosch University. He served as Editor-in-Chief for the African Journal of Herpetology (2009-2017) and was an Associate Editor for Herpetological Conservation and Biology. He attended annual Herpetological Association of Africa (HAA) conferences as a well-known and respected expert. At an international level, he served as a Professor at Yunnan University, China, and was an Honorary Attach\u00e9 of the Museum National D’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post, the invasive species community of South Africa expressed their profound sadness at hearing the news of his passing. Describing him as an \u201cinternational rock star\u201d in the world of herpetology, they remember him as someone \u201cwho was always happy to give advice, guidance, asking questions and to fight for his students to be represented\u201d.<\/p>\n

According to Prof. Richardson, Dr Measey was \u201ca superb researcher, an excellent lecturer, supervisor and mentor. He was a crucial cog in the wheel of the invasion ecology in South Africa and his contributions will be sorely missed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Passing of renowned C\u00b7I\u00b7B herpetologist met with shock and sadness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11009,"featured_media":7189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[85986,3256],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-85986","category-news","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7147"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7193,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7147\/revisions\/7193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/cib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}