Prof. Brian van Wilgen, a leading conservation ecologist from the DST/NRF Centre for Invasion Biology (C·I·B) at Stellenbosch University (SU), was honored with a Gold Medal Award from the Academy of Science of South Africa.
ASSAf annually awards the ASSAf Science-for-Society Gold Medal for outstanding achievement in scientific thinking to the benefit of society. The award was handed over by Dr Phil Mjwara, Director-General of Science and Technology (DST), at a prestigious awards ceremony held in Pretoria last night (12 October 2016).
Prof. Van Wilgen's contributions to ecology in South Africa has been described as "immense".
According to prof. Dave Richardson, director of the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology at SU, he is also a world leader in the fields of fire ecology and invasive species.
"He is extremely skilled in translating the results of research into practical guidelines for management. In this area, he has made huge contributions to environmental policies and management initiatives in South Africa," he said in reaction to the award.
Prof. Louise Warnich, Dean of the Faculty of Science at SU, said Prof. Van Wilgen is playing a leading role in the C·I·B: "His research is highly cited and he plays a valuable role as supervisor of postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows at the C·I·B.
"The ASSAf gold medal award is a well-deserved recognition of his significant contribution to applied ecology research over many years. The Faculty proudly celebrates this acknowledgement with him," she said.
Prof. Van Wilgen says it is an honor to be recognized in this way: "I have been very privileged to be able to work as an ecologist in one of the world's few mega-diverse countries, and at a time when a transition to democracy opened up enormous opportunities to practice applied ecology in a rapidly-changing country.
"Of course, I could also not have achieved a fraction of what I have without the help of many colleagues, several of them really outstanding people and scientists. So I would like to make use of this opportunity to thank all of them for their collaboration and support over the years," he concluded.
More about Prof. Brian van Wilgen
Van Wilgen studied Forestry at Stellenbosch University, graduating with a BSc degree in 1974 and an Honours degree in 1977. He completed a Masters and PhD degrees in Botany at the University of Cape Town in 1980 and 1985 respectively.
Between 1974 and 1990 he was associated, in various capacities, with the now defunct South African Forestry Research Institute (SAFRI) and was based at Jonkershoek Forestry Research Centre outside Stellenbosch. When SAFRI become incorporated into the CSIR, he moved to the CSIR campus in Stellenbosch where he was based until 2013. Upon retirement from the CSIR in 2013, he took up a professorship at Stellenbosch University, associated with the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology (C·I·B).
His career as an applied ecologist in Africa spans 40 years during which he has had a major impact in many ways. He has worked on the ecology and management of invasive alien plants, and in particular on the use of fire in managing invasions, the population dynamics of invasive plants, water use by invasive plants, the biological control of invasive plants, studies on resource economics, and the development of research and management strategies. His other main interest has been the ecology and management of ecosystems using fire. On this front he has worked mainly in fynbos, grassland and savanna ecosystems in Southern Africa, but also in the USA, Argentina, Australia and the Indian Ocean islands. Much of his recent work has been aimed at integrating research results towards the design and implementation of environmental policy, including the measurement and consideration of ecosystem services.
He is author or co-author of over 250 publications, including three books. In 2008, he was award a DSc degree by SU. He has received numerous awards, including the National Science and Technology Forum annual award for an outstanding individual contribution to science, engineering and technology and the South African National Parks annual award for contributions to conservation by an individual, both in 2010.
More about the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)
The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) celebrates its 20th year as official academy of South Africa this year.
ASSAf was inaugurated in May 1996. It was formed in response to the need for an Academy of Science consonant with the dawn of democracy in South Africa: activist in its mission of using science and scholarship for the benefit of society, with a mandate encompassing all scholarly disciplines that use an open-minded and evidence-based approach to build knowledge.
ASSAf thus adopted in its name the term 'science' in the singular as reflecting a common way of enquiring rather than an aggregation of different disciplines. Its Members are elected on the basis of a combination of two principal criteria, academic excellence and significant contributions to society.
The Parliament of South Africa passed the Academy of Science of South Africa Act (Act 67 of 2001), which came into force on 15 May 2002. This made ASSAf the only academy of science in South Africa officially recognised by government and representing the country in the international community of science academies and elsewhere.
For more on the history of ASSAf
