UCT oceanographer joins South African Young Academy of Science

Dr Sarah Fawcett, a researcher and lecturer at UCT’s Department of Oceanography, has been elected to the South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS), an organisation that aims to be the voice of the country’s young scientists and to help bridge the gap between science and society.

SAYAS seeks to elect South Africa’s leading emerging researchers in basic and applied science, engineering, social sciences, arts and the humanities. In addition to a demonstrated excellence in research, candidates should be able to show an ongoing commitment to improving science through engagement in community development, capacity building and mentoring activities.

Fawcett – who has also recently been recognised with a P rating from the National Research Foundation and a 2017 Claude Leon Merit Award – is interested in understanding the complex relationships between biogeochemical fluxes and primary productivity in the ocean. These processes have implications for past and future climate, ecosystem structure and function, ocean fertility and global biogeochemical cycles. Fawcett and her lab will be participating in an international expedition to the Weddell Sea in Antarctica during January next year.

Fawcett has an undergraduate degree in Earth and planetary science from Harvard University. She completed her PhD and postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University.