Research
I am currently registered as a PhD candidate at Wageningen University & Research in The Netherlands. My PhD is on enhancing the use of machine learning in digital soil mapping. My PhD focuses on: 1) Developing a methodology which can account for measurement errors in machine learning; (2) Investigating multivariate soil mapping with machine learning; and (3) Mapping right-censored soil thickness data with survival machine learning.
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Apart from my PhD I am also involved in various research projects in the Faculty of Agrisciences at Stellenbosch University. These projects are mostly in genetics, soil science and crop yield prediction.
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ORCID: 0000-0001-9469-8427
Recent Publications
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van der Westhuizen, S., Heuvelink, G.B.M., Hofmeyr, D.P. (2023). Multivariate random forest for digital soil mapping. Geoderma, 431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2023.116365.
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van der Westhuizen, .S., Heuvelink, G.B.M, Hofmeyr, D.P., Poggio, L. (2022). Measurement error-filtered machine learning in digital soil mapping. Spatial Statistics, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spasta.2021.100572.
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Bodenstein, D., Clarke, C., Watson, A., Miller, J., van der Westhuizen, S., Rozanov, A. (2022). Evaluation of global and continental scale soil maps for southern Africa using selected soil properties. CATENA, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2022.106381.
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van Beek, C.R., Guzha, T., Kopana, N., van der Westhuizen, S., Panda, S.K., Van der Vyver, C. (2021). The SINAC2 transcription factor from tomato confers tolerance to drought stress in transgenic tobacco plants. Physiology and Molecular Biology of Plants, 27(3), 907-921.
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Langley, J., van der Westhuizen, S., Morland, G., van Asch, B. (2020). Mitochondrial genomes and polymorphic regions of Gonimbrasia belina and Gynanisa maja (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae), two important edible caterpillars of Southern Africa. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 144, 632-642