Loandi Richter-Mouton

Dr Loandi Richter-Mouton has eight years of research experience in Food Safety microbiology and biotechnology including antimicrobial resistance and microbiological quality and safety of water and food in both formal and informal sectors. She has been a postdoctoral research fellow in the water and food safety research program, the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Pretoria since 2022. Over the short period that Dr. Richter has been active in the academic field through post-graduate studies, she has been able to publish six peer-reviewed original research articles in Quartile 1 (three) and Quartile 2 (three) journals with impact factors ranging between 3.17 and 10.90 and has presented at numerous international conferences. Additionally, she has contributed to conceptualizing and preparing research proposals for external funding. Most recently being responsible for the project conceptualization, application, and successful funding acquisition of the Water Research Commission-funded project entitled “Building a South African Human Pathogenic Bacteria and Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network in Agri-food-producing Environments through a water-focussed One Health Approach”.

Her research activities have focused on microbiological quality, as well as the prevalence, dissemination, and characteristics of antimicrobial-resistant potential human pathogenic bacteria in the water-plant-food-public health interface. This includes the use of next-generation technologies such as whole genome sequencing and, more recently, meta-data analysis of antimicrobial resistance within environmental One Health.

She is currently responsible for research project coordination and reporting of five externally funded projects as well as scientific guidance and supervision for MSc and PhD students, including advanced methodology training and laboratory management within the three food safety laboratories of the Plant Health and Food Safety research group in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences at the University of Pretoria.