Esther van den Berg was born in Ermelo on 18 November 1941. Her father worked for the Department of Labour and they moved around quite a lot. Therefore before matriculating from the Hoërskool Langenhoven in Pretoria in 1959 she was enrolled in seven different schools. This is probably when she got bitten by that travel bug, but more about that later. Dr Esther wanted to become a pharmacist but one month into her practical year (way back then you had to do your practical year before starting your degree), the powers that be told her that they do not need her any more – bad luck to them. After an aptitude test at the University of Pretoria where they told her that she would be a perfect entomologist she enrolled for a B.Sc., which she obtained in 1962. In March 1963 while working towards a M.Sc. on the taxonomy of a beetle she started working at the Department of Entomology of the University of Pretoria, which was then still part of the Department of Agricultural Technical Services. In 1968 because with a M.Sc. she was over qualified for the post at Tukkies, she moved to the Transvaal Region of the Department of Agricultural Technical Services. After a few months of intense boredom she went to ask for help from Dr Lenie Meyer. Dr Meyer knew that Dr Johan Furstenberg was leaving the Nematology Section to join the University of Port Elizabeth and she went to speak to Prof Juan Heyns. Apparently Prof Heyns's first reaction was that he does not want a woman, because they just want to get married and then they leave and then he has to start training somebody else. Luckily for us he changed his mind. A few years back when we were celebrating Dr Esther's sixtieth birthday she asked Prof Heyns, to his delight, if she may now get married. So in November 1968 Dr Esther joined the Nematology Section of PPRI and with that the pioneering taxonomic team of Heyns, Kleynhans and Van den Berg was formed. Prof Heyns started Dr Esther working on the genus Hoplolaimus and then the rest of the family Hoplolaimidae and also the Pratylenchidae. In 1974 Dr Esther obtained the first Ph.D. in Nematology in South Africa from the University of Johannesburg (then the Rand Afrikaans University). Through the years she also specialized in the taxonomy of the Criconematidae and the Tylenchulidae. Dr Esther published a vast number of peer reviewed papers and the last count stands at 147. Dr Esther officially retired at the end of 2006 but she still comes in three times a week to continue with the biosystematics of "her worms" and helps us in the identification of all "her" species.

Esther van den Berg is a fellow of the NSSA and is also one of the founding members of the society and was one of that group that attended the first symposium at Nelspruit in 1973. She, with her co-authors of the book "Plant nematodes in South Africa," was awarded the Rhone-Poulenc award for achievement in Nematology in 1997.

But let us get back to that travel bug business. Dr Esther have what we in Afrikaans call "jukkende voete" that means that she have this intense desire to see what is around the next corner and to see what all the unknown places look like. During the last decade or four Dr Esther travelled far and wide, from Alaska to Zambia and everywhere in between. This year she will visit China – for the second time! One of her other passion besides travelling of which the guinea fowl, lapwings, weavers, barbets, sparrows and even the mynahs at Rietondale can be witnesses is her love for animals, especially the feathered variety. Over the years we all got to know a few highly spoiled, but much loved budgie "children".

A long time ago we have decided that it is not only "mad dogs and Englishmen that go out in the midday sun", but that it is mad dogs, Englishmen and nematologists" To that we now can add that it is not only that little battery bunny that keeps on going and going and going, but also some nematologists (taxonomists??).