Charles Laubscher
Charles P. Laubscher DTech is a Professor of Horticultural Science at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology where he works as an academic and researcher focused on postgraduate studies in Horticulture. He completed his undergraduate and masters in Horticulture and doctorate in technology at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology with the title, ”An Eco-Tourism and Conservation Perspective of Endangered Proteaceae of the Cape Floral Region on the Agulhas Plain”. Prof Laubscher is a scientifically aware horticulturist with expertise in ecological conservation of threatened species and specialized plant propagation and cultivation of Cape Floral species. He has worked as officer in the South African National Defence, as horticulturist in industry and as a university academic for 46 years. Prof Laubscher is currently employed at the Department of Horticultural Sciences of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology where he was the Head of Department for 8 years overseeing both Horticulture and Landscape Architecture disciplines. He designed and coordinated the high-tech speciality greenhouse facilities for both undergraduate and postgraduate research studies and has played a major role in developing horticulture qualifications. His current research activities are focused on plant cultivation techniques of South African, coastal leafy green vegetables in developing commercial protocols to aid food security in drought-stricken areas. He also researches traditional medicinal plant species in evaluating phenological and physiological responses to abiotic parameters of various plant ecotypes. Other plants include Cape Fynbos flowering bulbs, shrubs and annuals. He has been a visiting scientist at the Beijing Forestry University (China), Tsitsin Main Moscow Botanical Garden, Academy of Sciences (Russia), University of Applied Sciences, Hochshule Osnabrück (Germany), Mendel University (Czech Republic), University of Bologna, (Italy), University of Florence (Italy) and the University of Catania (Sicily, Italy). Prof Laubscher has expertise in garden design, landscape management, plant nursery production and consulting in community-based vegetable gardens and outreach programme in helping disadvantaged communities to establish urban vegetable gardens using advanced technologies to increase food production.