Engineering, Ornithology, Climate Studies

Janine Schoombie, Aerodynamicist at the University of Pretoria

Janine finalised her PhD studies at the University of Pretoria in 2025. In her PhD, she studied the effect of changing winds on the flight capabilities of Grey-headed Albatrosses breeding on Marion Island. 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.

After completing her MSc in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Janine joined the 72nd expedition team on Marion Island in 2015, as a Seabird Field Researcher for the Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town. She then honed her skills as an Aerodynamicist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) before joining the 76th Marion Island expedition team in 2019, this time looking at the ecological effects of wind on Marion Island.