Professor, Unit for Environmental Sciences & Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Stefan specializes in the geoecology of harsh environments, with a specific interest in gypsum and serpentine soils. His main research focus is edaphic endemism, restoration ecology, soil ecology of harsh ecosystems, and trophic transfer of potentially toxic metals. He has spent the past 23 years working on various projects throughout southern Africa.

Although no stranger to Namibia, he only first came to Gobabeb in April 2022 to study the biocrusts of the gypsum plains. This was followed by a GYPWORLD regional expedition which he hosted in August of the same year to run a workshop and to study the gypsum ecosystems of the Namib. You can read more about it here.

 Currently he heads up the GeoEco Lab at north-West University and is supervising a number of students in collaboration with GYPWORLD, SAEON, and Gobabeb. As part of the Gobabeb family he is supervising two new projects. One project is focussed on the biodiversity of Namib inselbergs along an aridity gradient and the other considers the phenotypical and phenological differences of !Nara along a latitudinal gradient in the Namib.

 His ResearchGate profile is here.

@GobabebRSH