Leading Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University botany professor Richard Cowling was awarded the South African Association of Botanists (SAAB) Gold Medal for Botany Award.
The Gold Medal is the premier award and is given on the grounds of outstanding botanical research and contributions to the advancement of botany in the country. It is only awarded to exceptional candidates, making Prof Cowling only the 12th recipient in the 46-year SAAB history.
Prof Hannes van Staden of the University of Kwazulu-Natal nominated Prof Cowling and highlighted his contribution to both basic and applied research as well as his sterling work in conserving and restoring the country’s natural resources.
In addition, another NMMU Botany staff member Dr Alastair Potts was awarded the SAAB Bronze or Junior Medal that is awarded annually to the best botanical PhD thesis countrywide.
The South African Association of Botanists (SAAB) grew out of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science (S2A3) and was officially inaugurated as an independent organisation in 1968 with the expressed purpose of providing professional botanists a forum to share their work and to promote botany as a science in South Africa.
Article issued by Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University