Dr Tommy G. Bornman

Node Manager. Dr Thomas (Tommy) Bornman completed his undergraduate and post-graduate studies at the University of Port Elizabeth (now the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University), majoring in marine botany with projects ranging from oceanic phytoplankton, macroalgal mariculture and estuarine macrophyte ecology.

Dr Thomas (Tommy) Bornman completed his undergraduate and post-graduate studies at the University of Port Elizabeth (now the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University), majoring in marine botany with projects ranging from oceanic phytoplankton, macroalgal mariculure and estuarine macrophyte ecology. He remained at NMMU after he completed his PhD in 2002 as an environmental consultant with the University based Institute for Environmental and Coastal Management. In 2006 he became a full time research scientist at the university concentrating on estuarine freshwater requirement studies. He was appointed by the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) as the African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP) coordinator in 2008 and was also seconded to the GEF funded and UNDP implemented Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystems (ASCLME) Project as the research cruise coordinator. In 2011 he was appointed as the manager of the Elwandle Coastal Node of the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON). Managing the Node is not all about sitting in the office or attending meetings. The observatories established by the Elwandle Coastal Node are numerous and diverse and Tommy spend as much time on, under and next to the sea as anyone else at the Node. Tommy’s research interests include oceanic and coastal phytoplankton, estuarine ecology and GIS and he has supervised 23 post-graduate students from NMMU, UCT and UFH in these disciplines.