Rate My Professor Peter Ryan

Emeritus Professor Peter G Ryan is affiliated with the Department of Biological Sciences in the Faculty of Science at the University of Cape Town. He holds a BSc (Hons), MSc and PhD from the University of Cape Town. His MSc research examined the impacts of ingested plastic on seabirds, while his PhD investigated the evolutionary ecology of buntings in the Tristan archipelago. Following a post-doctoral position at the University of California, where he taught ornithology at UC Davis, he returned to the University of Cape Town in 1993 as Academic Coordinator of the Masters Programme in Conservation Biology at the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology.

Professor Ryan served as Director of the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, which forms the core of a DST-NRF Centre of Excellence. His research interests encompass general ornithology, with particular emphasis on seabird-fishery interactions, evolutionary ecology of closely-related species complexes, marine debris and plastic pollution, solid waste management, and the biology of oceanic islands. He has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and 12 popular books on birds and sub-Antarctic island wildlife. He previously served as President of BirdLife South Africa and as an associate editor of Antarctic Science and Bird Conservation International. He has been Honorary Conservation Officer at Tristan da Cunha since 1989 and is a member of its Biodiversity Advisory Group. Among his honours are NRF A-rating and the Gill Memorial Medal.