Rate My Professor Els Vermeulen

Prof Els Vermeulen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology and Entomology at the University of Pretoria. She serves as Research Manager and Chief Scientist of the Mammal Research Institute Whale Unit. A Belgian national originally from Antwerp, she has been involved in marine mammal research since 2002. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Antwerp and earned her PhD from the University of Liège in 2014. Vermeulen joined the University of Pretoria as a postdoctoral researcher in 2015 and assumed leadership of the Whale Unit in 2017.

Her work centers on the ecology, population dynamics, behaviour and conservation of cetaceans in southern African waters and the Southern Ocean, drawing on long-term datasets spanning more than 50 years. She has examined the effects of climate change on southern right whale health, reproduction and migration, and collaborates across faculties on genetics and geography projects. Vermeulen was promoted to Associate Professor in recognition of her contributions to cetacean science and conservation biology.