Plos' good work pays dividends

The best: Andrea Plos' outstanding work for the Zoology department has won her the Derek Krige Medal.

UCT staffer Andrea Plos has been awarded the Derek Krige Medal in recognition of her "outstanding" achievements in the field of technical support to marine science in South Africa.

The South African Network for Coastal and Oceanic Research handed the prestigious honour, which is given once in four years if there is a deserving person, to Plos on 2 July, during the 13th Southern Africa Marine Science Symposium in Cape Town.

For over 10 years, Plos, the principal technical officer in the Department of Zoology, has been providing students with technical and logistical support for their marine research. She has been organising and running the department's ski boat and almost all the scientific diving operations.

In motivating for her nomination, students and staff at UCT described the contribution of Plos, president of the Employees Union, as "extraordinary and selfless".

A commercial diver and a skipper, Plos said she was shocked by the award and attributed it to the "great opportunities" she is exposed to.

"I'm fortunate to work in a department where I love what I do," she explains. "Students and staff always come up with cutting-edge research and I have the fun challenge to find technical solutions to their unusual and diverse projects. But I can say, they keep me young and fit - or dirty and tired," she laughed.