Research Associates
Dr Wendy Foden
Associate Professor: Stellenbosch University
Head: Cape Research Centre, South African National Parks
Chair: IUCN Species Survival Commission, Climate Change Specialist Group
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Wendy’s research focuses on climate change vulnerability and adaptation in natural systems. As a researcher in SANBI’s Climate Change and Biodiversity Group, Wendy studied Namib Desert Quiver Trees and documented some of the first evidence of climate change impacts in arid ecosystems and on plants. She led SANBI’s Threatened Species Programme (2003-2007) where she initiated several Red Listing, atlasing and monitoring projects, and founded a scholarship for research on threatened species conservation. Thereafter, she initiated and led the IUCN Global Species Programme’s Climate Change Unit, based in Cambridge, UK (2007-2013) where she led development of the IUCN’s best-practice guidelines for assessing species’ vulnerability to climate change. Wendy recently won IUCN’s George Rabb award for innovative conservation and the British Ecological Society’s Marsh award for outstanding climate change research. In her role as head of the Cape Research Centre at South African National Parks, she leads development of the organisation’s Climate Change Preparedness strategy, including development of park-level vulnerability assessments, adaptation planning and ongoing climate change monitoring.
Dr Nicola Stevens
Trapnell Fellow for African Systems, ECI, Oxford University
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Nikki’s research interests are centred around understanding vegetation dynamics in African savannas and how they are likely to change given increasing global change pressures like altered fire and herbivory regimes against a backdrop of changing CO2 concentrations. Along this vein she has become particularly interested in the phenomenon of woody encroachment where open ecosystems across the tropics are being invaded by native woody species. It has also driven her to improve our ability to predict future species ranges under global change by improving our mechanistic understanding of range edges in disturbance limited systems. She is currently based at the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University but has ongoing projects in Southern Africa with the hopes to expand this research to other tropical savannas.
Dr Warren Joubert
Landscape Scientist: South African Environmental Observation Network
Warren’s work focuses on exchange fluxes between atmosphere, ocean and the terrestrial biosphere. His background is in ocean-atmosphere carbon cycling with a particular focus on CO2 exchange at the ocean-atmosphere interface. His PhD work investigated surface ocean primary productivity in the Atlantic Southern Ocean, using a variety of in situ measurement techniques. His recent work focussed on long-term observation of atmospheric chemicals as part of South Africa’s Global Atmosphere Watch Programme. His current work includes atmosphere-biosphere exchange fluxes using micro-meteorological techniques to monitor various carbon and energy exchanges fluxes in various landscapes in South Africa.
Dr Romain Pirard
Romain Pirard holds a PhD in Environmental Economics with 20 years of experience and a specialization in South-East Asia and Southern Africa. Among his fields of expertise: deforestation dynamics, climate change mitigation strategies, carbon markets, sustainable forest management, invasive alien species and related value chains, biochar, market-based instruments for ecosystem services and sustainable commodity supply chains.
Dr Romina Henriques
Dr Henriques research focuses on population genomics and evolution of marine species, to assess the impact of exploitation and climate change on their genetic diversity and adaptation patterns. Her work explores how anthropogenic stressors affect species distribution, connectivity and hybridization patterns in exploited marine fishes, while developing conservation strategies that integrate genetic data to enhance biodiversity preservation. Her work advocates for the inclusion of molecular data for informing conservation and management policies, ultimately aiming to enhance understanding of marine biodiversity and address the challenges posed by environmental changes. Dr Henriques currently works across a broad range of species, from pyjama sharks to seagrasses and deep-water hakes. She is funded by the South African National Research Foundation, the European Union, the Revive & Restore Foundation and the Southeast Atlantic Fisheries Organization.
Prof Don Cowan
Prof Cowan began his career in enzymology and protein chemistry, initially focusing on high-temperature microorganisms. In 1999, after an opportunity to work in the Dry Valley deserts of Antarctica, his research transitioned into the field of microbial ecology, genomics and metagenomics. His Antarctic microbial ecology focus continued since that time, and his research group has published extensively on many aspects of Antarctic microbiomics. The last 15 years he turned his focus to the microbiomics of hot desert ecosystems, focussing on the Namib Desert. Prof Cowan’s broader research now spans global habitats, with a strong focus on how environmental change, particularly climate change, impacts soil microbiomes and their interactions with plants, including key crop species.
Dr Mohau Mateyisi
Dr Mohau Mateyisi is a theoretical physicist and climate scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). His research focuses on advancing climate modelling and climate services for decision-making in Southern Africa. With a background in atmospheric dynamics and statistical mechanics, he uses Earth System Models and machine learning to investigate the drivers of climate extremes across the Southern Hemisphere. He is a member of the World Climate Research Programme’s Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (WGNE). His work supports the development of value-added, user-centric climate services and early warning systems tailored to climate-sensitive sectors such as health, energy, agriculture, and infrastructure. A particular focus of his research is on the impacts of extreme heat on vulnerable communities in Southern Africa, helping to inform resilience strategies across the region.
Dr Kathleen Smart
Dr Kathleen Smart is a Landscape Scientist at the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), working within one of the research infrastructures, EFTEON (Expanded Freshwater and Terrestrial Environmental Observation Network). Kathleen obtained her PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand (2016) under the supervision of Bob Scholes, and her work focused on carbon, water, and energy flow through the semi-arid thicket biome and systems ecology to link fine-scale ecosystem processes to the bigger picture of global change. She leads the Biogeochemistry observations for EFTEON and is based in the Northern Drakensberg landscape.
Dr Justin du Toit
Justin is Production Scientist at the Grootfontein Agricultural Development Institute in Middelburg, Eastern Cape. His research examines the drivers of vegetation change in the semi-arid Karoo, with particular emphasis on rainfall variability, drought, fire, and livestock grazing. He investigate how shifts in rainfall patterns and grazing pressure influence the balance between grasses and shrubs, and how these factors shape long-term ecosystem resilience. Fire is another important driver, especially in dwarf shrublands where it can trigger lasting changes in community composition. To track change, Justin collects data across the Karoo, draw on existing long-term datasets, and use tools such as repeat photography and satellite imagery to monitor vegetation patterns over time.
Peter Makumbe
Peter Makumbe is an ecologist and conservationist dedicated to fostering human-wildlife coexistence in shared landscapes, especially where communities, livestock and wildlife intersect. His passion lies in enhancing ecosystem resilience in changing environments. His work addresses the dual challenge of conserving nature and helping communities adapt to the impacts of climate change and promoting solutions that secure healthy landscapes. His current work focuses on human-wildlife dynamics in a migratory elephant population, applying geospatial modelling to understand movement, habitat use, and conflict risks. Peter is currently pursuing a PhD in Nature Conservation at Nelson Mandela University and serves as the Research Manager for the Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation at Shangani Holistic in Zimbabwe.
Dr Jussi Baade
Jussi’s research interests are in the field of human-environment interactions, with a focus on the relief sphere and fluvial dynamics. He is particularly interested in quantifying soil erosion through sediment discharge and high-precision mapping using terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). He is also particularly interested in artifacts of (early) anthropogenic landscape change and adaptation to environmental conditions, which can be found, for example, in arid and semi-arid regions in the form of irrigation terraces and irragic anthrosols. In South Africa, Jussi has worked on determining erosion rates in protected areas (e.g., Kruger National Park) and most recently led a multi-year research project on monitoring land degradation. He is particularly interested in the extent to which and by what means long-term observation series can be created that can distinguish short-term changes caused by annual fluctuations in atmospheric dynamics from long-term trends.
Prof Christiane Schmullius
Prof Christiane Schmullius has chaired the Department for Earth Observation at Germany’s Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena for the past 25 years. Following her MSc as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California at Santa Barbara and her PhD focussing on radar remote sensing of crops, she headed the Geomatics-group at the Institute for Radio Frequency Technology, German Aerospace Center (DLR) from 1991-2000, and was Science Team Lead for the two NASA-DLR-ASI SIR-C/X-SAR radar shuttle missions in 1994 and DLR’s project scientist for the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in February 2000. Her research focuses on terrestrial surfaces ranging from operational vegetation mapping (forest biomass and agriculture), land cover to soil moisture monitoring and application of operational and experimental Earth observation sensors in the optical and microwave domains. Prof Schmullius developed a comprehensive BSc remote sensing curriculum and a joint MSc degree in Geoinformatics and Remote Sensing. In 2010, she received the German Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse) for achievements in Earth observation education. Prof. Schmullius has coordinated large international forest mapping projects since the mid-90s, and since 2010 her research focus changed to savanna vegetation monitoring. She was a member of the European Science Foundation’s European Space Science Council, ESA’s Earth Science Advisory Committee, the European Framework Program 7 Space Advisory Group, DLR’s Senate, the German Future Earth Committee, and Program Chair for the International Astronautical Congress. Prof. Schmullius has co-authored over 600 peer-reviewed articles and has written four book chapters, and has supervised over 90 Master theses, 38 dissertations and hosted 23 post-doctoral fellows, six of whom pursued their ‘habilitations’ (German tenure track and venia legendi requirement).