Buster Mogonong is a Scientist at the Institute of Natural Resources (INR). He is also a PhD candidate at the University of Witwatersrand, registered in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences. He recently joined the INR and will be working under the Ecosystems theme. Buster’s research interests span across the fields of Earth Observations; Remote Sensing, GIS, Ecology and Socio-Ecological Systems. He enjoys working with remotely sensed data to answer ecological research questions spanning across different disciplines of science. The archives of current and historical imagery have sparked his interest of wanting to understand patterns of change in various landscapes through space and time using time series analysis of land use and land cover. His interest for Earth Observation studies carried on to his PhD research where he unpacked spatial-temporal changes and drivers of small-scale (subsistence) crop farming in rural former apartheid homelands in South Africa, using medium to high resolution satellite imagery, climate and socio- economic data.

Part of the datasets from Buster’s PhD and MSc have been published in Remote Sensing and South African Journal of Sciences respectively. Buster previously worked as an intern for EFTEON-SAEON based at the Arid Lands Node (Kimberley) between 2020 and 2021. During this time, he was involved in setting up the long-term vegetation monitoring plots using the SEOSAW protocols, vegetation mapping and assisting in the long term phenological studies at Benfontein Nature Reserve. The vegetation dataset was published as a research note in South African Journal of Botany. During this time, he had the opportunity to collaborate with scientists from Jena University in Germany and he co-authored two publications in Remote Sensing, a review paper and research article.

Besides his academic life, Buster served as an external communication liaison for SAEON graduate student network (GSN) between 2021 and 2022. As he establishes his career as a Scientist, Buster wishes to expand his modelling expertise and contributing towards capacity building by co-supervision of students involved in science projects and collaboration with various stakeholders.