Team

Meet our current team of scientists and educators. Our team reflects the international nature of science with members and collaborators from across the world

  • Simon Elwen PhD

    Founding Director and Principal Scientist Research Associate, Dept of BotZoo, University of Stellenbosch

  • Tess Gridley PhD

    Founding Director, Operations Manager and Principal Scientist

  • Sasha Dines PhD

    Co-Director, Logistics, Fundraising, Humpback dolphins

  • Paul Tixier PhD

    Visiting Researcher from IRD, France

  • Clare Homewood

    African Bioacoustics Community and the Listening for Life project

  • Cat (Catherine) Nadin

    Funding officer and Research Associate - African Bioacoustics Community

  • Rachel Probert PhD

    Post-Doctoral researcher (UCT) - Cape fur seal health project (and multiple acoustic projects too )

  • Bridget James PhD

    Research Associate & Post Doctoral Researcher - Humpback dolphin conservation

  • Aaron Barnes

    PhD student on killer whales around Southern Africa looking at population size, linkages, diet and ecology between SA, Marion Island and Crozets

  • Jack Fearey

    PhD Student (UCT) - Signature Whistles: Occurrence, Recapture and Density: Investigation into the use of signature whistles for estimating abundance, density, and social structure

  • Erin Ross-Marsh

    PhD student (Stellenbosch) - Studying the timing and structure of humpback whale song around Southern Africa. Also runs the African Bioacoustics Scicomm. (Ross-Marsh, nee Church)

  • Lindiwe Makapela

    MSc Student (Stellenbosch) - Understanding killer whale depredation on longline fisheries in SA

  • Charlotte Combrink

    MSc Student - Stellenbosch Uni. Fur Seal genetics

  • Connor Reid

    Research Associate and former MSc Student (Jean Monnet University, MOBI acoustics course)

  • Anthea Karamitsos

    Research Assistant - Building and bolstering sound libraries for African fish

  • Daniella Failé

    Honours student (Stellenbosch University) - Estimating the prevalence and spatio–temporal patterns of health and human impacts within Heaviside's dolphin populations

  • Alana Theron

    Honours Student (Stellenbosch) - Estimating population residency and abundance of the Heaviside's dolphin at the southern extent of their range.

  • Danielle Nooijen

    HAS Green Academy, NL - Work Integrated Learning student 2026

Applied Bioacoustics Course in Kruger Park, South Africa (May and Sep 2026)

Join us and the Organization for Tropical Studies Team - he the phenomenal Kruger Park - South Africa's premier nature reserve to learn all the skills

Learn more here