I obtained a BSc. In Zoology and Entomology in 1994 from Rhodes University, South Africa. My final year undergraduate research involved a geographic discriminant analysis of honey bee populations (Apis mellifera sp.) of south-western Africa using chromatographic analysis of mandibular and sting pheromones. I then obtained an Honours degree in Marine Biology in 1995. My Honours research included fieldwork in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica focusing on surface water carbon flux as the first step in the benthic carbon pump which sequesters atmospheric carbon and removes it to a stable carbon sink on the ocean bed.

In 1997 I began working with the South African Sea Fisheries Research Institute while reading for an MSc in Ichthyology and fisheries science with Rhodes University and the Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries science. My research involved assessing deep water stocks of Orange Roughy (Hoplostethus atlanticus) a valuable table fish in international markets.

I joined WildCRU in July 2002 when I was recruited by Dr. Andrew Loveridge as a field assistant to the Hwange Research Project. For two years I managed the field station in Zimbabwe full time and travelled to Oxford in October 2004 to matriculate as a student for a D.Phil. in Zoology. I am currently reading for my D.Phil. in Zoology at Lady Margret Hall, Oxford.