Simon Elwen PhD

Born and raised in South Africa, I’ve always loved both the sea and animals. After graduating as a biologist, I have had the privilege to travel and work in several other countries including the UK and Gabon. Most of my work since my PhD has been in Namibia running the Namibian Dolphin Project, where I’ve been focussing on Heaviside’s and bottlenose dolphin ecology. More recently, I have moved back to Cape Town to setup Sea Search as a base of operations to make it easier expand my research within South Africa.

Although I’m interested in all aspects of the ocean, I’m particularly interested in the behavioural adaptations that cetaceans make to different environmental conditions. This is an important line of research these days due to the increasing number of changes that have occurred in the marine realm from human impacts.

Summary of my work:

• 2014-2019: NRF Research Career Advancement Fellow – University of Pretoria. Set up Sea Search with Dr Tess Gridley
• 2012 – 2014: Research Fellow – University of Pretoria
• 2010 – 2011: Claude Leon Post-Doctoral Fellow – University of Pretoria
• 2008 – ongoing: Initiated, set up, sourced funding and lead the Namibian Dolphin Project, a research and conservation project in Namibia
• 2008 – 2009: University of Pretoria Post-Doctoral fellow
• 2008: Research Assistant: St Andrews University, Scotland
• 2007: Research Assistant: University of Aberdeen, Scotland
• 2002 – 2008 (part time since 2005) University of Pretoria – PhD: “The distribution, movements and abundance of Heaviside’s dolphins in the nearshore waters of the Western Cape, South Africa.” Supervisor: Prof Peter Best
• 2000 – 2001 University of Pretoria, MSc (with Distinction): “Environmental factors influencing the distribution of southern right whales (Eubalaena australis) on the South African coast.” Supervisors: Prof Peter Best & Prof Marthán Bester
• 1996 – 1999 – University of the Witwatersrand, BSc and BSc Honours.

 

 

 

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Latest Talk by Simon on You Tube: