Position: Professor
Affiliation: Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Don Cowan was educated at the University of Waikato (NZ) before taking a Lectureship at University College London (UK). In 1985, he accepted the Chair of Microbiology at UWC (RSA). In 2012 he moved to the University of Pretoria as Director of the Genomics Research Institute and the Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics.
Prof Cowan’s research is in the fields of microbial ecology and genomics, focusing on the microbiology of extreme environments, particularly in Antarctica and in African hot desert ecosystems, where he works with many other research laboratories across the world. Prof Cowan has authored 410 research papers, 53 book chapters and 2 books. He has a Scopus H-index of 66 and holds an NRF A1 rating.
Through his career, Prof Cowan has trained and graduated 50 PhD students and 52 MSc students, and supervised 85 postdocs. He is Professor Emeritus at UWC, is an RSSAf Fellow, a Member of ASSAf and an Honorary Fellow of RSNZ. In the past two decades he has been awarded the UWC Vice-Rector’s Award for Research Excellence, the SASM Medal for Research Excellence, the NSTF Capacity Development award, the UP Chancellor’s Medal, the RSSAf John Herschel medal, the UP Exceptional Supervisor’s Award and the SASBMB Gold Medal.