Dr Natasha Lombard is a Senior Scientist at the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) in Pretoria, where she specialises in plant taxonomy and systematics. Her research currently focuses on the systematic study of the genus Thesium (Santalaceae), encompassing taxonomy, morphology, phylogenetics, phytochemistry, and ethnobotany. She also serves as curator of the Iridaceae and Orchidaceae collections at the National Herbarium in Pretoria.
Dr Lombard completed her PhD in Botany in 2023 from the University of Johannesburg, following her MSc in Botany (cum laude) in 2018. Her doctoral research provided comprehensive insights into the systematics of Thesium, contributing significantly to our understanding of this challenging plant genus.
She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, with notable contributions to plant taxonomy, ethnobotany, and chemophenetics. Her work includes the description of new species, taxonomic revisions, and innovative approaches to species identification in cryptic taxa. She has authored several popular scientific articles. Dr Lombard actively contributes to the scientific community as a research associate at the University of Johannesburg and serves as a reviewer for several prestigious journals.
Her expertise has been recognized through various awards and grants, including the Emily Holmes Memorial Scholarship and the Bentham-Moxon Trust grant, which supported her research at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. She was recently named one of SANBI's 30 under 35 Young Professionals (2024) and has received multiple awards for her conference presentations.
