{"id":1561,"date":"2022-10-17T11:36:51","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T09:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogsdev.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/?p=1561"},"modified":"2022-10-17T11:36:51","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T09:36:51","slug":"celebrating-the-legacy-of-dr-hans-merensky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/2022\/10\/17\/celebrating-the-legacy-of-dr-hans-merensky\/","title":{"rendered":"[:en]Celebrating the legacy of Dr. Hans Merensky[:]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[:en]<em><strong>Post authored by\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/blogsdev.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/the-team\/#michelle-eckert\"><strong><em>Dr Michelle Eckert<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #ff9900\">EucXylo<\/span>\u00a0had the privilege of joining our sibling groups (also funded by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hmfoundation.co.za\/\">Hans Merensky Foundation<\/a>) to celebrate the legacy that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hmfoundation.co.za\/about-dr-merensky\/introduction\/\">Dr. Merensky<\/a> left behind over the course of a 3-day trip. On arrival, we took an amazing tour of the plantations at his original farm (Westfalia) in Tzaneen, learning about the legendary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hmfoundation.co.za\/about-dr-merensky\/introduction\/\">Dr. Merensky<\/a> \u2013 walking where he walked, standing where he stood. We also got to see the dam that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hmfoundation.co.za\/about-dr-merensky\/introduction\/\">Dr. Merensky<\/a> built \u2013 which was not only for himself \u2013 but also for the community of farms in the surrounding area (an example of the kind of long-term and altruistic thinking that was typical of him, as also exemplified by the Foundation that funds us).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1564 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/blogsdev.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/files\/2022\/10\/Picture1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"405\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Figure 1. Dr. Stefan K\u00f6hne giving a talk on the Hans Merensky Dam for the EucXylo team<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1567 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/blogsdev.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/files\/2022\/10\/Picture2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"533\" height=\"299\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Figure 2. The Hans Merensky Dam<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the trip was spent at the Fairview Hotel in Tzaneen. No, it is not what you think \u2013 there was definitely no time for golf or lazing about! We spent time with the trustees and board members, listening to talks and learning about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hmfoundation.co.za\/about-dr-merensky\/introduction\/\">Dr. Merensky<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hmfoundation.co.za\/\">the Foundation<\/a>, the inner workings of the company and their values. We were also given the opportunity to learn what our sibling groups were doing regarding their own research, and the groups mingled as we discussed what we had learned about the Merensky history and legacy, and then presented our own thoughts. We all walked away from the intense program with a new sense of purpose and an appreciation for what Dr. Merensky started: if it was not for him, we would not be <span style=\"color: #ff9900\">EucXylo<\/span>!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1570 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/blogsdev.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/files\/2022\/10\/Picture3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"536\" height=\"402\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Figure 3. EucXylo at one of the oldest <em>Eucalyptus<\/em> trees on the estate. Shown is Miss Yenziwe Mbuyisa (left), Prof. David Drew (right) and Dr. Kim Martin (behind the tree) showing us the diameter of the tree.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;[:]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[:en]Post authored by\u00a0Dr Michelle Eckert EucXylo\u00a0had the privilege of joining our sibling groups (also funded by the Hans Merensky Foundation) to celebrate the legacy that Dr. Merensky left behind over the course of a 3-day trip. On arrival, we took an amazing tour of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10084,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10084"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sun.ac.za\/eucxylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}