Richard Mark Cowling is a Distinguished Professor in the Botany Department at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Prior to moving to the Eastern Cape (in 2000), he was the Leslie Hill Professor of Plant Conservation and Director of the Institute for Plant Conservation at the University of Cape Town. Prof Cowling is a globally renowned expert on the evolution and conservation of the flora and vegetation of southern Africa. He has published over 300 items in the peer-reviewed, scientific literature, and has authored five books. Prof Cowling has been widely recognized for his contributions both locally and internationally. Since 1999, the National Research Foundation has awarded him an A1 rating, indicating that he is a world leader in his research field. He is a foreign associate of the USA National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America. Other prestigious awards include a Pew Fellows Program Award (1994) and the Society for Conservation Biology’s Distinguished Service Award (2004).
