PEOPLE
EXPERT DATABASE
We are establishing a database of South African marine and polar researchers to provide a platform where experts in the various specialisations can be found by, for example, potential collaborators, students looking for supervisors, organisers of speaking events, media reps, etc.
Finding experts in the field of polar and offshore marine research, within South Africa
ATTENTION: Polar & Offshore Marine Researchers
Want to add your details to this page? Simply follow the link below to complete the sign-up form.
SIGN UPAlternatively, contact Rabia Mathakutha for more information.
r.mathakutha@saeon.nrf.ac.za
Prof. Susanne Fietz
Associate Professor and Head of Department of Earth Sciences at Stellenbosch University
I am an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Earth Sciences at Stellenbosch University. My research focus includes past climatic changes and ecosystem responses that serve projections of the future, organic molecules tracking environmental changes and organism acclimation that support understanding responses to expected global changes, phytoplankton, microbes and biogeochemistry of the modern oceans helping understanding food webs and CO2 dynamics, atmospheric chemistry and air quality surveys improving marine coastal and human health
Prof. Alakendra Roychoudhury (Roy)
Professor
I am a Professor of Environmental Geochemistry at Stellenbosch University. My research is in the field of marine chemistry where I focus on bioactive trance metal dynamics and linkages with phytoplankton productivity in polar oceans and sea-ice.
Dr Janine Schoombie
Aerodynamicist
Janine has a passion for cross-disciplinary research, specifically using engineering tools to facilitate robust and meaningful research across conservation and environmental sciences. She has dabbled in Botany, Ornithology and climate studies on Marion Island. Her expertise lie in fluid dynamics and numerical simulations and experimentation.
Ria Olivier
Principal Investigator, Project Manager and Digital Archivist
I focus on the improvement of processes and activities, as well as the on-time delivery of outputs, and I fulfil the role of digital archivist for the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa data repository. With over 30 years of experience in Information Sciences since beginning my career in 1982, I bring extensive expertise in information management. I have in-depth knowledge of South Africa’s involvement in the Antarctic region and specialise in data management within the Antarctic environment
Prof. Sarah Fawcett
Associate Professor
Prof. Fawcett's is a chemical oceanographer and isotope geochemist whose work is largely laboratory- and field-based. Her research is focused on the cycling of biologically important elements in the marine environment, with a view to addressing questions related to ocean fertility, local and global biogeochemical cycling, ecosystem health, and past and present climate. Sarah has worked, and continues to work extensively in the Southern Ocean, the Benguela upwelling system and greater Agulhas Current region, and the open subtropical ocean. Sarah and the Marine Biogeochemistry Lab that she co-directs are additionally affiliated with BIOGRIP (the Biogeochemistry Research Infrastructure Platform; biogrip.ac.za), another SARIR initiative.
Prof. Peter le Roux
Professor
Ecologist with experience working in the sub-Antarctic, the sub-Arctic and montane grasslands. My broad research interest is community ecology, with particular attention to interspecific interactions, the impacts of global environmental change, and how the former mediates the impacts of the latter.
Dr Sandy Thomalla
Research Group Leader of the SOCCO
My current and future research has expanded into the development and application of ecosystem-appropriate, well-characterised products that translate ocean colour (and in situ bio-optical measurements) into carbon biogeochemistry (phytoplankton biomass, community structure and physiology) allowing new insight into ecosystem function. A key focus of my work is on assessing event, seasonal and inter-annual variability in ecosystem physical drivers and their biogeochemical response, in order to better understand the potential for carbon sequestration at a regional scale.
Yinhla Shihlomule
Top Predator Monitoring Coordinator
Expert in Population Genetics of Marine Mammals from Marion Island
