University of Cape Town
Professor and Head of Department: P A Cook, BSc (Hons) PhD Wales. E-mail: pcook@botzoo.uct.ac.za Peter Cook studied at the University of Wales Aberystwyth and the Marine Science Department of the University of North Wales. He is currently employed at the University of Cape Town Zoology Department as a senior lecturer in Comparative Physiology. He also heads the Abalone Research Group. EDITORIAL WORK, REFEREEING AND SCIENTIFIC ADVISING: Member of the Editorial Board, Journal Shellfish Research (USA). Member Scientific Committee, 1992 American Shellfisheries Association annual Symposium. Registered Aquaculture Consultant, Development Bank of Southern Africa. Co-editor, 1994 Aquaculture Association of Southern Africa Symposium Proceedings. Member Scientific Committee (appointed Feb 1995, including sponsorship to attend meetings in USA), 3rd International Abalone Symposium to be held in California September 1997. Professional member South African Institute of Ecologists and Environmental Scientists. COUNCILS AND COMMITTEES Chairman, Mariculture Association of Southern Africa Council member, Aquaculture Association of Southern Africa South African representative International Abalone Committee (set up in Tasmania in 1994) Member SFRI Abalone working group Member SFRI working group: Mariculture and the Environment Cape Fishing Forum: Chairman Mariculture Working Group Member: National Marine Linefish Management Committee President: South African Underwater Union Head: Abalone Research Group, UCT PUBLICATIONS Books 1, Chapters in books 3, research papers 36, papers in press 7, papers in preparation 12, non-refereed papers and research reports 14. SYMPOSIA PRESENTATIONS: International 28, Local 23. CURRENT POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS: 5 MSc, 3 PhD. Professors of Zoology: G M Branch, BSc (Hons) PhD Cape Town FRSSAf. E-mail: gmbranch@pop.uct.ac.za George Branch has primary interests in two different types of research. The first revolves around the ecology and management of intertidal and shallow subtidal rocky shores. He began his research career working on limpets, which are a vital group in terms of their impacts on rocky-shore communities. This focus covered a wide range of approaches, including the evolution and radiation of the group, metabolic patterns, specialisation of feeding mechanisms, competition, predation and interactions with other organisms. His interests then spread to the factors controlling community structure in general, particularly the significance of competition, predation, wave action and productivity. His students have also been concerned with the genetics of rocky-shore animals. A second interest is in the management of marine fisheries, particularly the role of Marine Protected Areas, and the control of inshore stocks. His work and that of his students has concentrated on rock lobsters, abalone, urchins, mussels and seaweeds. He is particularly interested in ecosystem approaches to fisheries management. He has been actively involved with the development of new policies for fisheries, and was the chairman of the Access Rights Technical Committee that provided advice to the Fisheries Policy Working Group. He has strong connections with the work being spearheaded in Natal by Jean Harris, dealing with mussel biology and management, and the development of a system of co-management for mussel stocks. He has also worked on estuarine ecosystems, particularly the interactions between benthic estuarine organisms such as bloodworm, mudprawns, sandprawns and mudsnails. M A du Plessis, MSc Pret PhD Cape Town. E-mail: morne@botzoo.uct.ac.za See the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology for details.... J G Field, BSc (Hons) PhD Cape Town FRSSAf. E-mail: jgfield@pop.uct.ac.za John Field is interested in how marine ecosystems function, and achieving that understanding through developing simple models of marine ecosystems. In a nutshell, this means studying marine foodwebs from phytoplankton to fish. He started his career studying marine benthic community structure and developed multivariate (cluster analysis) tools for this purpose and is still engaged in this work, largely in relation to environmental impact studies in marine and freshwater environments. This led to work on kelpbed ecosystems and studies of energy flow through ecosystems, and on to plankton, the „microbial loop" and the importance of body size as a means of simplifying models of plankton systems leading to fish. Related interests include the use of network analysis and ecopath models for studying foodwebs, the influence of physical factors on marine ecosystems, and fisheries management, including the influence of the environmental factors on fish population fluctuations, and the use of expert systems and rule-based models. In the Zoology Department he co-ordinates the Honours course. In South Africa, he is a member of the Consultative Advisory Forum (CAF) to the Minister reponsible for national fisheries management, and chairs the Benguela Ecology Programme and the SA Scientific Committee for Global Change. On the international front, he is past chair of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) aimed at understanding the role of the oceans in the greenhouse effect, and is currently President of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR). He has supervised 54 successful MSc and PhD students. G Gäde, MS PhD Munster. E-mail: ggade@botzoo.uct.ac.za Gerd Gäde received his academic education in Biology and Chemistry at the universities of Münster and Kiel in Germany. He graduated from the University of Münster with an MSc (thesis on aerobic and anaerobic working muscle in arthropods) and a PhD (thesis on physiological and biochemical adaptations of marine and fresh water mollusks to life without oxygen) and with a two-year fellowship he did a post-doc in the Department of Animal Physiology at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands. There he was introduced to metabolic peptide hormones of insects and he was the first to show that an insect neuropeptide hormone, the adipokinetic hormone of locusts, uses cyclic AMP as second messenger. He then accepted a temporary academic faculty position in the Department of Animal Physiology at the University of Bonn in Germany where he spent the next 7 years establishing a small research group and supervising a number of MSc and PhD student. At the same time, he was working as one of the 6 top groups in the world on anaerobic energy metabolism in invertebrates AND continued his work on insect endocrinology. The latter area became more and more important in his research and his group became famous over the years for their successful isolation and complete chemical elucidation of numerous metabolic insect neuropeptides. In 1981 he achieved his Habilitation, a second dissertation in the German academic system that has to be mastered in order to apply for full professorships, and was awarded the prestigious Heisenberg Fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in 1983. With the fellowship, he moved to the Department of Animal Physiology at the University of Düsseldorf in Germany. His research group was now solving regulatory properties of enzymes involved in anaerobic energy metabolism and, mainly, elucidating physiological and biochemical problems of insect endocrinological research. During the years 1977 to 1989 he regularly visited research laboratories and universities in the UK and the USA for up to 4 months where he made valuable contacts and discovered his ability to collaborate well on a part-time basis with his colleagues and peers. In 1988 he received the call as Chair of Zoology to the Zoology Department at the University of Cape Town. He started this position in December 1989. His small but very successful research group in Cape Town includes his research associate, Dr Lutz Auerswald, and lecturer, Dr Heather Marco, and their current research interest is the isolation and identification of neuropeptide hormones from insects and crustaceans, the physiological meaning of these neuropeptides, which includes the detailed analysis of insect flight metabolism and the mode of action of such neuropeptides, and the morphological and immunological characterization of the cells in which such neuropeptides are produced. Furthermore, the group is interested in the economic usage of lobster waste, i.e. which valuable substances can be extracted from this waste and how can we make use of these chemicals for economic gain. Another topic is to use the knowledge on crustacean hormones involved in metabolism, reproduction and growth in order to be helpful to the rock lobster industry and fishery and to a potential aquaculture industry. Publications: Gerd Gäde has published more than 30 review articles on anaerobic metabolism in invertebrates and on insect neuropeptides. He has published about 40 original articles on anerobic metabolism and enzymes and about 130 studies on invertebrate endocrinology, neuropeptides, flight metabolism and similar topics. Editorial board member: He is a member of the editorial board of Journal Insect Physiology; Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Invertebrate Neuroscience; Journal of Insect Science. Conferences: Over the last 20 years he has been regularly invited to give state-of-the-art-lectures at international conferences and has contributed widely in oral and poster communications at national and mainly international symposia and meetings, so that it is not surprising that he has published more than 150 conference abstracts. Honorary Professors of Zoology: M Cluver, MSc PhD Stell FRSSAf Biography to follow. M N Bruton, MSc PhD Rhodes Biography to follow. Emeritus Professor: Brown, Alexander Claude. M.Sc. (Rhodes),
Ph.D., D.Sc. (UCT). Director of the Centre for Marine Studies, University of Cape Town. Emeritus Professor of Zoology. Research interests: Marine biology, in particular the ecology and ecophysiology of sandy-shore animals, marine pollution studies and marine impact assessment. Also the history and philosophy of science. Forty-five years experience, resulting in 190 scientific publications and five books. Distinguished teacher award (1981), Gold Medal of the Zoological Society of Southern Africa (1986), Gilchrist Gold Medal (1996). Emeritus Associate Professor: J U M Jarvis, MSc Cape Town PhD East Africa FRSSAf. E-mail: jjarvis@botzoo.uct.ac.za Assoc Prof Jennifer Jarvis heads a research group whose main interest is in the ecophysiology and ethology of subterranean mammals, particularly mole-rats endemic to Africa (Family Bathyergidae). These interesting animals show specialisations to life underground and are also of great interest in terms of their social organisation where some species are solitary and others highly social. Research on mammals Current ongoing research includes (1) long-term field work on the demography of populations of the social Damaraland mole-rat and studies on the genetics of several species of mole-rat (2) pollen utilisation by rodents. Associate Professors: A Chinsamy-Turan, BSc (Hons) PhD Wits. E-mail: achinsam@botzoo.uct.ac.za Biography to follow. T M Crowe, MSc Chicago PhD Cape Town. E-mail: tmcrowe@botzoo.uct.ac.za See Ornithology for biography B R Davies, BSc (Hons) Newcastle
PhD CNAA MSAIE
& ES, MWISA. Associate Professor of Zoology; co-founder and presently Deputy Director, Freshwater Research Unit Ministerial Appointee to the Board of the Water Research Commission. Research interests: River ecosystem communities and ecosystem processes Ecological effects of large and small-scale water-supply schemes on dryland riverine environments with particular interest in African systems. Ecological effects of inter-basin water transfers on riverine processes, genetic transfers, alien invasive species and community responses to transfers. Decomposition processes in aquatic ecosystems Coastal lake and estuarine processes and the influence of rivers on the coastal zone. Water conservation issues, water-demand management, water-savings devices, sustainable management of water resources Rehabilitation of urban rivers and wetland conservation and management. C L Griffiths, BSc (Hons) Soton PhD Cape Town. E-mail: clgriff@pop.uct.ac.za Prof Charles Griffiths is Director of the Marine Biology Research Institute and current Head of the Zoology Department at UCT. He obtained his honours degree from Southampton University (UK) in 1970, followed by a PhD from the University of Cape Town in 1974. He has been a member of the academic staff at UCT since 1976. He is author of three guide books to South African marine life and has published approximately 100 scientific papers in this general field. He has a broad knowledge of and interest in South African coastal ecology, but his research has focused on crustacean systematics, predator-prey interactions, the ecophysiology of bivalve molluscs and coastal fisheries management. He has supervised over 30 master and PhD students in these and other related disciplines. P A R Hockey, BSc (Hons) Edinburgh PhD Cape Town. E-mail: phockey@botzoo.uct.ac.za See the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology for details.... Chief Research Officer (Associate Professor): J H Hoffmann, MSc PhD Rhodes. E-mail: hoff@botzoo.uct.ac.za After growing up in Zimbabwe, John Hoffmann studied entomology at Rhodes University, Grahamstown. Between 1975 and 1986 John worked for the Plant Protection Research Institute (PPRI) of the Agricultural Research Council where he spent most of his time involved in overseas exploration, screening, mass-rearing and release of biological control agents for use against alien invasive plants in the East Cape Province of South Africa. In 1986 he accepted a post as a Research Officer at the University of Cape Town. He has retained his interests in biological control of weeds and maintains a flourishing research relationship with colleagues in the PPRI. Most of his research efforts now focus on assessing the effectiveness of herbivorous insects that have been introduced into South Africa for biological control of troublesome plant species. Honorary Research Associate: V C Moran MSc PhD Rhodes FRES FLS FRSSAP. E-mail: Biography to follow. Senior Lecturers: J A Day, BSc (Hons) PhD Cape Town. E-mail:jday@botzoo.uct.ac.za Dr Jenny Day is a senior lecturer in Zoology, and is also Assistant Dean of Science and the Director of the Freshwater Research Unit (see that web page). She is a freshwater biologist interested particularly in crustaceans and in aquatic ecosystems in deserts and other arid areas, most especially in ephemeral systems. She is also involved in management of water quality in South Africa's aquatic ecosystems and has assisted the state Department of Water Affairs in the development of water quality guidelines for aquatic ecosystems. She presently runs both the Zoology Department's undergraduate course in freshwater biology and the Honours module that examines the usefulness of ecological theories in the management of freshwater ecosystems. She and Bryan Davies have recently written 'Vanishing Waters', a book on South Africa's aquatic ecosystems and their management. A Govender, MSc PhD UND.
Anesh Govender’s research is focussed on fisheries; undertaking stock assessment and population dynamics modelling using advanced mathematical, computer simulation and statistical modelling techniques. His interest lies in linefisheries and their management thereof. He has worked on various species of finfish (sex-changing seabreams, large pelagic gamefish and shore-caught angling species), sharks (dusky, great white, ragged-tooth) and turtles (loggerhead and leatherback). For many years he served on an advisory forum, which advised the Minister on national fishing and marine resource use. Selected publications
D Jacobs, BSc (Hons) Cape
Town PhD Hawaii.
Lecturer in Zoology. Research interests: By research interests focus on, but are not restricted to, terrestrial ecosystems. Fields of interest include evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, community ecology, population genetics, biodiversity, conservation biology with special focus on bats. M I Lucas, BSc (Hons) PhD Wales.
Marine Biology Research Institute After receiving a PhD from the University of Wales (Bangor) in 1977, Mike Lucas first took up an 18 month temporary Lectureship in the Zoology Department at UCT in 1977; followed by research periods at Duke University, N. Carolina, USA, and at the Plymouth Marine Laboratories, UK. He returned to the Zoology Department ( UCT) in 1982 where he has remained since, firstly as a contract Research Officer and latterly, in 1997, as a Lecturer. During this period he has worked on decomposition and nutrient cycling processes in saltmarshes, in kelp-beds and on phytoplankton within the Benguela Ecology Programme. From 1991-1996, he was a co-leader of the South African Antarctic Marine Research programme which addressed biogeochemical cycles and climate change issues within the South African sector of the Southern Ocean. This programme also made a contribution to the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme concerned with quantifying the rates and processes governing ocean-atmosphere exchanges of CO2. Within this framework, Mike is the South African representative of the international Southern Ocean JGOFS (SO-JGOFS) Planning Group which plans, co-ordinates and synthesises JGOFS activities in the Southern Ocean. His own research interests within SO-JGOFS have focused on quantifying carbon and nitrogen cycling processes and fluxes within Southern Ocean planktonic communities. Apart from leading National research cruises, he has also participated on a number of international cruises to the Southern Ocean, notably with the Germans and the British with whom he has developed close research contacts. Since 1996, his interests have also encompassed renewed research on phytoplankton and biogeochemical processes in the Benguela ecosystem as part of new regional and international research initiatives being developed for this region. In 1997, Mike was appointed as a Lecturer within the Zoology Department where he is currently course co-ordinator for the 3rd year Marine Ecology course (ZOO302F). He also makes contributions to second year and Honours level teaching as well as being actively involved in post-graduate training through MSc and PhD supervision. He retains strong research contacts with the Southampton Oceanography Centre (SOC), UK, where he spends some months each year as part of a bi-lateral agreement to further develop links between SOC and UCT. This aims to foster joint research interests as well as encourage post-graduate opportunities in marine sciences for students who could benefit from research at one or both institutes. His specific research skills involve the use of stable (15N) and 14C radio-isotopes to determine primary productivity and biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen in the pelagic marine environment. Recently, his work has coupled these research tools with new techniques for mapping physical and biological features in the ocean at the mesoscale using towed, undulating instruments (eg. SeaSoar) and at larger scales using satellite ocean colour (SeaWiFS) imagery. This work has evolved in collaboration with colleagues at the Oceanography Department (UCT) and with his research associates at SOC and Plymouth Marine Laboratories, UK. He has published widely on topics as diverse as bacteria, bivalves, burrowing prawns, kelp, phytoplankton and nutrient cycling; including a popular science book on Antarctica (1996). An avid supporter of South African rugby and its sponsors, he keeps fit by playing veterans league squash. C Moloney, BSc (Hons) PhD Cape
Town. Coleen Moloney joined the staff of the Zoology Department as a Senior Lecturer in June 2001, and is co-convenor of the MSc course in Applied Marine Science (ZOO505W and ZOO506W). She obtained her PhD from the University of Cape Town in 1988, for research on the use of general size relationships to model plankton communities. She spent two years (1992-1993) in a post-doctoral position at the University of California in Davis, working on models of metapopulations and biological-physical interactions in marine ecosystems. Between 1996 and 2001 she was employed in research at Marine and Coastal Management, a branch of the South African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. There she was involved in different aspects of research for purposes of assessing fish stocks and providing advice for management of South African fisheries. Her research interests are broad, but all relate to improving our understanding of ecosystems, and our abilities to model and predict changes in the marine environment and its living communities. Most of her own research involves the use of models as a research tool, and her teaching focuses on improving the numeracy skills of students. In South Africa, Coleen is a past Chair of the Steering Committee of the South African Network for Coastal and Oceanic Research. In international circles, she is a member of a GLOBEC (Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics) working group that aims to develop modelling and predictive capabilites for marine ecosystems. She is also a member of a panel affiliated to the Global Ocean Observations System, which is developing a system for collecting, processing and distributing marine data on a global scale. M J O'Riain, BSc (Hons) PhD Cape Town. E-mail: joriain@botzoo.uct.ac.za A product of UCT Zoology department, Justin O'Riain completed his PhD in 1996 and then left for the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park were he worked as a team leader on the Cambridge run Meerkat project. After 18 months in the field with this charismatic social mongoose he went to Cambridge for a six-month period of number crunching and tiptoeing in the hallowed halls. He was then invited to join the Ecology Laboratory at the University of Paris (Institute Pierre et Marie Curie) as a post-doctoral student studying dispersal in small mammals and forging theoretical links between social mammals and eusocial insects. The offer of a permanent French Research position was not sufficient to over-ride the feverish pining for the wilds of Africa and so he returned to the Gateway of Africa and accepted a position as Senior lecturer at UCT. His main research interest is the behavioural ecology of social mammals with special interests in the highly social naked mole-rat from Southern Kenya and the cooperatively breeding meerkat of the Kalahari desert. He has published in top international journals, contributed to books and textbooks and is currently establishing a small mammal research center with Dr G. Bronner and Dr D. Jacobs within the department. He has recently taken on his first Masters and PhD students who are conducting field based research on aspects of mammalian sociality. Undergraduate students will encounter Dr O'Riain lecturing in Vertebrate Zoology and on the Behavioural Ecology Field course. The fitter students might catch a glimpse of him on the touch rugby field. M D Picker, BSc (Hons) PhD Witwatersrand. E-mail: mpicker@botzoo.uct.ac.za Dr Mike Picker obtained his PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand, where he initially worked on the population biology of Amphibia. His research interests have gradually changed to those of insect ecology, systematics and biogeography. Most of his research is based in the arid regions of the south-western Cape. He is essentially a field biologist and endeavors to develop in his students an enthusiasm and appreciation for the very rich insect fauna of South Africa. P G Ryan, MSc PhD Cape Town. E-mail: pryan@botzoo.uct.ca.za See the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology for details.... Lecturers: G N Bronner, BSc (Hons) PhD Natal. E-mail: gbronner@botzoo.uct.ac.za Gary Bronner joined the staff of the Zoology Department as a Lecturer in July 2000, and is co-ordinator of the Vertebrate Zoology course (ZOO300F). He studied at the University of Natal (Durban), where he obtained his MSc degree (1986) for research on rodent ecology, and a Ph.D. degree (1995) for research on the systematics of the rare and endemic golden moles of southern Africa. He joined the staff of the Transvaal Museum (Pretoria) in 1989, first as Curator and then as Head Curator of Mammals (1991-1996), during which time his research focused mainly on the systematics, evolution and conservation biology of small mammals. In 1996 he moved to Potchefstroom University where presented first-the year chordate zoology and evolution courses for both Potchefstroom and UNISA students, as well as modules on biosystematics and biodiversity to Honours students. His research there explored the ecophysiology and ecology of rodents and bats, with emphasis on their role(s) in ecosystem functioning and the sustainable rehabilitation of communities. He has published 33 scientific papers, 4 popular articles and species accounts for golden moles in various books, as well as 5 technical reports detailing the findings of applied research commissioned by industrial corporations. He has 21 symposium presentations (13 international, 8 local) to his name, and has served as supervisor or co-supervisor for 8 Masters and 2 Doctoral students. Gary is primarily a field biologist with a broad knowledge of, and interest in, the natural history of small mammals, particularly the systematics, synecology and conservation biology of rare and endemic species. Current research projects, mostly collaborative, focus on the molecular systematics of golden moles, ecotoxicological impacts of new generation insecticides on small vertebrates, roosting and foraging ecology of bats and the community ecology of rodents. He also has a keen interest in evolutionary theory and believes strongly in the consilience of knowledge whereby students should be made aware of how zoology, as a science, relates to other human endeavours in enriching our lives. H Marco, BSc (Hons) PhD Cape Town. E-mail: hmarco@botzoo.uct.ac.za Assistant Lecturer: J Jordaan, BSc (Hons) Stell. E-mail: jjordaan@botzoo.uct.ac.za Jean Jordaan graduated from the University of Stellenbosch with a BSc degree in the early nineteen sixties. Following another year of study for a secondary teacher's diploma, he went into teaching. At the end of the first year, he left formal classroom teaching to take up a teaching post in Kirstenbosch Gardens in Newlands as "nature study teacher", to a wide variety of students, ranging from pre-schoolers and continuing through the primary and high school to university students and special interest groups. A feature of teaching in- and out-of-doors was that lessons had to be designed for the differing student groups. After a number of years, he decided to return to the university for further study, and graduated from the University of Cape Town with a MEd in 1990, during which he investigated the outcome of the school curriculum in biology. In 1995, an appointment to teach a life science foundation course in the Academic Development Programme at the University of Cape Town followed. Stationed in the Zoology Department, teaching during the first half of the year was combined with tutoring during the second half, in the BIO104S course. He collected information centring on differing styles of learning in life sciences of culture groups that form the above-mentioned first year class groups. He comments that first year students are very nearly the most interesting people on the campus. Examples of tutorials developed for the BIO104S class group during 1998 can be seen by clicking on the EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS button. . Teaching Assistant: To be appointed Biography to follow.
|
