Lecturers

Mathieu Rouault

I am research director of the Nansen Tutu Center in Cape town and will coordinate the summer school. I am also associate professsor in the Dept of Oceanography at University of Cape Towm . My research encompass all aspects of ocean atmosphere interaction from numerical modelling to experimental work at sea, from meteorology and physical oceanography to climatology and now the impact of climate change and variability on marine ecosystems and water resources Visit my website

Noel Keenlyside

I am professor in tropical Meteorology at the Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre. My main interests are in ocean atmosphere interaction, understanding the ocean's role in climate, and climate prediction. I have worked on seasonal-to-decadal climate variability in the tropics and North Atlantic, and used climate models to study mechanisms and predictability. I am keen to better understand tropical Atlantic climate and improve its prediction, and this is one of the main objectives of the the EU PREFACE project, which I coordinate Visit my website

Peter Brandt

I am Professor for Physical Oceanography at the University of Kiel and the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel. My interest is in the ocean's role in the climate system. My work focusses on ocean processes from small to large scales including internal waves and mixing, eddies, planetary waves, variability of the wind-driven and thermohaline circulation and on climate biogeochemistry interactions. I led several research cruises into the tropical Atlantic. Visit my website

Johnny Johannessen

I am research director at NERSC and and co-chairman of the board of the Nansen Tutu Center. My research focus in satellite oceanography, air sea interaction, Agulhas Current and sea ice research. I have participated in 15 international field campaigns and I was chief scientist on 10 of these cruises. I am involved in development and implementation of operational oceanography system. I lecture in satellite oceanography and in operational oceanography in South Africa and in Norway. I serve on several national and international advisory committees Visit my website

Belen Rodriguez Fonseca

I'm Professor at the University Complutense of Madrid and researcher of the Geosciences Institute at CSIC. My research experience is in the role of the global oceans in climate variability and impacts at interanual to multidecadal timescales. I have been involved in international research projects in Africa as AMMA and I cooperate with University of Dakar. My current research focusses on SST forced atmospheric teleconnections with impact on rainfall, crops, fisheries and health mainly in the tropical Atlantic and Sahel region and the North Atlantic and European sector. Visit my website

Marjolaine Krug

Hello. I am researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Cape Town, where I work within the Ecosystem Earth Observation group. My Research interests include Agulhas Current variability, shelf and coastal dynamics, Observations from altimeters, Synthetic Aperture Radars and Infra-Red sensors, Improving our observations of ocean surface currents from space. I am also research associate of the Nansen Tutu Center and of the dept of Oceanography at University of Cape Town.

Laura Blamey

Laura Blamey is a marine ecologist in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cape Town, where she holds a Research Career Advancement Fellowship from the NRF. Her research centres around coastal ecosystems, with a strong focus on kelp forest systems. Her work involves both empirical and modeling approaches to try and understand the interactions between key species in kelp ecosystems, shifts in ecosystem states, drivers of ecosystem change and how these changes might influence important commercial fisheries.

Marcus Dengler

I am a sea-going Physical Oceanographer at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany. My research interests include ocean circulation and its impact on climate variability, western boundary currents, dynamics of upwelling regions as well as equatorial wave dynamics. Currently, I am particularly fascinated by diapycnal mixing processes and their connection to internal waves. Visit my website

Martin Visbeck

Professor Martin Visbeck holds the chair in Physical Oceanography at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and University of Kiel, Germany. His research is concerned with ocean and climate variability and change with particular emphasis on water mass transformation and circulation of the Subpolar North Atlantic, Oxygen Minimum Zones in the Tropical Atlantic and sustained Atlantic Ocean Observations using an increased fleet of robotic platforms. More recently he is engaged in ocean sustainability at the global level. He has served on several national and international advisory committees.

Tore Furevik

Professor in physical oceanography at University of Bergen and director of the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research. He coordinates the Norwegian research school in climate dynamics. He is former president of the Bergen Geophysical Society and the Norwegian Geophysical Society. His research focus is on climate modeling, large-scale variability in the atmosphere and ocean, and air-sea-ice interactions. He is in the steering group of the Worldwide Universities Network, vice chair in the board of KLIMAFORSK and is representing Norway in the European JPI-Climate. Visit my website

Mojib Latif

I am Head of the Research Division Ocean Circulation and Climate Dynamics as well as the Research Unit Marine Meteorology at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and University of Kiel, Germany. My research interests are seasonal to interannual variability, decadal to centennial variability, anthropogenic climate change, and model development and intercomparison. Visit my website

Nathalie Burls

I am currently a postdoctoral associate in the department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale University where my research focuses on the role of the ocean and clouds within Earth's past, present and future climate variability. Before moving to Yale, I was based in the Department of Oceanography at the University of Cape Town, where I examined, from an energetics perspective, the part played by the ocean within the generation and evolution of coupled ocean-atmosphere variability in the tropical Atlantic Ocean - a region of great importance for African and South American climate. Visit my website

Bjorn Backeberg

Dr Bjorn Backeberg is the Co-Director of the Nansen-Tutu Centre for Marine Environmental Research at the University of Cape Town. His main research interests are to combine ocean modelling and observations (data assimilation) to study the Agulhas Current. The aim of the research is to generate new knowledge of real management and policy relevance, and better understand potential changes in the regional ocean due to seasonal-to-decadal variability and climate change

Svein Sunby

I am research scientist at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Affiliated to the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research and the Hjort Centre for Marine Ecosystem Dynamics. My background is physical oceanography and marine ecology. I work on ocean climate studies, impacts of physical processes and ocean climate on marine ecosystems and fish populations, and ecosystem modelling from the Arctic to the Benguela. I was involved in IPCC “Open Oceans” chapter. Visit my website

Thomas Toniazzo

I studied theoretical physics and astrophysics. I joined the UK Met Office
at the Hadley Centre for Climate Research in 2001, the Department of
Meteorology of the University of Reading in 2006, and the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research in Bergen, Norway, in 2013. My research focusses on how tropical coupled climate variability and its associated global atmospheric circulation and weather anomalies are represented in numerical climate simulations. Understanding the origin of model biases and their implications for climate prediction is a central problem of modern climatology.

Joke Lübbecke

I am a Junior Professor for Physical Oceanography at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany. My research is concerned with interannual to decadal time scale tropical ocean-atmosphere variability. I am trying to better understand the processes that control the strength and frequency of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical Atlantic and Pacific, e.g. related to El Niño, Atlantic zonal mode and Benguela Niño events. Visit my website

Frank Shillington

Frank Shillington is an Emeritus Professor of Oceanography at the University of Cape Town, and Co-Director of the Nansen-Tutu Centre. He has extremely wide oceanographic research interests, ranging from tsunamis, sea level, wind waves, to cold water filaments and circulation of the Benguela Current System; most recently these topics include using the tools of satellite remote sensing of sea surface temperature, ocean colour, winds and waves, and numerical modelling of the coastal ocean circulation.

Marek Ostrowski

I am a researcher in oceanography at the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, Norway. My research interest is on climate and oceanographic mechanisms controlling enrichment transport and retention within the pelagic ecosystems located in the windless upwelling sectors along the Eastern Tropical Atlantic boundary. The studies involve retrospective analyses of the remotely sensed satellite, as well as the in situ oceanographic and fish distribution data.

Olivier Maury

IOlivier is a french marine ecologist, population and ecosystem modeller from IRD. Most of his present research time is dedicated to the development of the ecosystem model APECOSM, which represents ecosystems from plankton to fish and fisheries at global and regional scales and includes climate forcing. APECOSM is used to run biodiversity and ecosystem services scenarios. Olivier has recently been appointed as an IPBES lead author.

Carl Van der Lingen

Carl van der Lingen is a Specialist Scientist of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries who has focussed on understanding the biology and ecology of small pelagic fish in the southern Benguela and other ecosystems. Carl is examining the trophic ecology of sardine and other small pelagic fish in the Benguela and elsewhere. He has also conducted research on the early life history stages of small pelagic fish in the Benguela, and is interested in better understanding the role of small pelagic fish in upwelling and other systems, and the impacts of environmental variability and climate change on small pelagic fish population dynamics and distributions.

Christo Whittle

I am a researcher at CSIR, Cape Town. My research focus in understanding the forcing mechanisms driving the physical variability that affects primary production on the continental shelf south of Africa, using satellite, in situ and hydrodynamic model data. I am also a research associate of the Nansen-Tutu Centre and contribute towards postgraduate teaching in the Department of Oceanography at the University of Cape Town.

Martin Schmidt

I am researcher at the Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnemünde. After studying physics, my research interest turned to physical oceanography and ecosystem functioning. The focus of my work is on processes studies and numerical modelling with special interest on ecosystem changes in dependence on physical conditions. In turn I am fascinated to learn how life is modifying ocean dynamics. This led me to work in several projects investigating the oxygen minimum zones in the Atlantic Eastern Boundary Current system, especially in the Benguela. I am working a lot with numerical models but I like the work at sea. My teaching is Theoretical Oceanography at Rostock University.

Issofu Halo

I am Mozambican, currently doing a Postdoc at Nansen-Tutu Centre and
Department of Oceanography of UCT. My research activity is modelling the processes of large and small scale oceanic circulation in the West Indian Ocean, using high resolution Regional Ocean Modelling System. My main research interest is eddy mean flow interactions, energy fluxes and their impact on climate and regional coastal marine ecosystems

Sebastiaan Swart

I am a Senior Researcher at the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observatory, CSIR. I am a physical oceanographer using satellite and in situ observations to study the Southern Ocean. I have participated in 12 research cruises, of which I was Chief Scientist on four of them to the Antarctic. My scientific interests involve ocean circulation and dynamics as well as ocean mixing processes and their impact on biogeochemistry and the oceanic carbon cycle. I am implementing a new national engineering facility on robotic ocean gliders in South Africa. I am currently the Vice-Chair of the Southern Ocean Observing System. Visit my website

Lynn Shannon

I am s

Stewart Bernard