New manager for SAEON’s Arid Lands Node

Dr Joh Henschel in the Namib dunefield

SAEON is pleased to announce the appointment of a leading figure in the ecology of arid environments, Dr Joh Henschel, as manager of its Arid Lands Node as from 1 November 2013.

Dr Henschel is a South African citizen who studied zoology at the universities of Cape Town and Pretoria. He has been working in Namibia for the past 25 years as post-doc, curator, data manager, research coordinator, executive director of a research institution, and currently as environmental consultant.

This seasoned researcher and science manager has published 123 scientific papers and has edited two volumes on ecological subjects in peer-reviewed journals. He was closely involved in the Namibian Environmental Observatories Network (NaEON) and the Environmental Long-Term Observatories of Southern Africa (ELTOSA) of which he was the founding chair, and also served on the Executive Committee of the International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) Network.

His management and leadership experience spans sixteen years - seven years working as research coordinator of the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia and nine years as executive director of the Gobabeb Research and Training Centre.

Dr Henschel will be bringing a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to SAEON and its Arid Lands Node. As he will be the first "true" zoologist to join SAEON management, his appointment is expected to diversify the organisation’s scientific capacity and management perspectives.