Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystems Project

The ASCLME Project's Principal Scientific Advisor, Prof. Johann Lutjeharms, has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate (honoris causa) by the University of Johannesburg. Professor Lutjeharms has spent a lifetime studying the oceanography of the region, and is particularly well know for his pioneering and comprehensive work on the Agulhas Current, which has lead to the recent publication of a book entitled "The Agulhas Current".

Here, we reproduce the award speech honouring his considerable achievements.

"Johann Lutjeharms completed his undergraduate studies in physics and in 1971 received his M.Sc. (cum laude) in oceanography at the University of Cape Town. He was awarded the Harry Crossley Bursary, the Fisheries Development Corporation postgraduate overseas bursary and the CSIR overseas bursary to study for a Ph.D. at the University of Washington where he graduated in 1977. He then joined the National Research Institute for Oceanology of the South African CSIR where he held the position of Chief Specialist Researcher at his appointment to the Chair of Ocean Climatology at the University of Cape Town in 1990. In 1993 he was the founding director of the Centre for Marine Studies of that university.

Lutjeharms' main field of investigation has been in establishing, quantifying and understanding the large scale circulation patterns of the oceans adjacent to southern Africa and their influence on weather and climate. To this end he has maintained an active research team and has been supervisor for a large number of postgraduate research projects. He has personally taken part in 17 research cruises and been responsible for a further 48 projects undertaken on such cruises. From this work have come 8 books, 27 contributions to books, 169 papers in peer-reviewed international journals, 114 reviews and popular articles, 45 research and technical reports as well as 14 contract reports. Articles in prestigious journals include two in Science and four in Nature. He is the author of an authoritative and much acclaimed book The Agulhas Current published by Springer in 2006.

Lutjeharms has attended and contributed to 16 international and 27 national conferences and 25 international workshops. His published papers have included 82 co-authors from his own establishment, a further 68 co-authors from 22 institutions in southern Africa as well as 182 foreign colleagues from Angola, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, the USA and Zambia. According to the Institute of Scientific Information his papers have to date been cited more than 4,300 times in the prime scientific literature and his h-index stands at 30. He has been the most published author in the South African Journal of Science during its 104 year history.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, a Full Member of the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns and also a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. He was a Council member and Vice-President of the Royal Society of South Africa and a member of the Faculty Council for Science of the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns. He has been on the Council of the South African Society for Atmospheric Sciences since its inception and in 2006 was made an Honorary Member. He is an Honorary Fellow of Rhodes University for life, was an Honorary Professor of the Rand Afrikaans University, Professor Extraordinarius of the University of South Africa and Visiting Professor by invitation at the Universidad de Concepción in Chile, the Universiteit Utrecht in the Netherlands, the Göteborgs Universitet in Sweden, the Bar-Ilan University in Israel and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in Spain. He has been a Visiting Scientist at the P. P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology in Russia, at the University of Pisa in Italy, at the University of Rhode Island, Columbia University and Oregon State University in the USA, at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale in France as well as a Bjerknes Visitor to the University of Bergen in Norway, a Cherchuer Associé of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement in France and a Special Fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study. He has served on Ph.D. committees for students at the Universiteit Utrecht in the Netherlands, the Universite Paul Sabatier Toulouse III in France and the Universität Bremen in Germany as well as been external reviewer for the habilitation at the Chistian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel in Germany.

He has been editor of the Journal of Marine Systems, Polar Biology, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa and the TheScientificWorld, guest editor of Deep-Sea Research and the Journal of Oceanography and editor-in-chief for the South African Journal of Antarctic Research. Internationally he has served on working groups of SCOR (Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research), the IUCN (International Union of Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) and IAPSO (International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Ocean). He was one of South Africa's designated representatives to SCOR. Nationally, he has been member of the South African National Committee for Oceanographic Research (SANCOR) and various other national working groups on environmental sciences. He is the appointed Expert Consultant in oceanography for the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal.

He has received a number of international awards including the Senior Visiting FRAM Fellowship of the NERC in the United Kingdom, the Senior Lectureship of the NSC of the Republic of China (Taiwan), the Williams Evans Visiting Fellowship at the University of Otago in New Zealand, the Alexander von Humboldt Preis of the German foundation of that name, the Bourse d’Echanges Scientifiques de Courte Durés of the Institut de Recherche pour le Dévelloppement in France, the Fridtjof Nansen Medal of the European Geosciences Union and a Fulbright Scholarship from the USA.

In 1992 he was awarded the D.Sc. degree by the University of Cape Town, the most prestigious degree conferred by that university. He has also received the Faculty of Science Research Award. This university has three main forms of recognition for its academic staff: Fellowship, the Distinguished Teachers Award and its Book Prize/Meritorious Publication Award. Lutjeharms is one of only three academics who have received all three.

Rhodes University honoured him with the D.Sc. (honoris causa) degree in 2006, the University of Pretoria with the same degree in 2007 and the University of Johannesburg with a Ph.D. (honoris causa) in 2008. In South African he has furthermore received the John D. Gilchrist medal from the South African marine science community, the Havenga Prize for physical sciences of the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, Stanley Jackson Awards of the South African Society for Atmospheric Sciences, SAJS Centenary Awards from the Academy of Science of South Africa, the John F. W. Herschel Medal of the Royal Society of South Africa, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Science & Technology Forum and the Woordwystoekenning of Die Afrikaanse Taal- en Kultuurvereniging. Since 1998 he has been an “A” rated researcher of the South African National Research Foundation, identifying him as an internationally recognised leader in his field."

Clearly, the ASCLME Project is priviledged to have a scientist of such calibre to advise it on matters of oceanography throughout the region, and it has been a pleasure working with him to design the research cruises being undertaken by the Project in the region.