September Saturday Student: Heather Forrer
Heather Forrer completed her undergraduate BSc degree at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2015, majoring in Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and Marine Biology. She then went on to complete her Honours degree at UCT in 2016 under the supervision of Dr. Sarah Fawcett where she focused on the nitrogen and oxygen isotopes of nitrate in the summertime Southern Ocean. Her aim was to evaluate the patterns of summertime nutrient utilization across the Atlantic Sector of the Antarctic Zone. Loving everything about Southern Ocean biogeochemical oceanography, 
Heather went on to complete a MSc with Dr. Sarah Fawcett and Dr. Angela Knapp (co-advisor, Florida State University (FSU), USA) in 2017 – 2020. Her MSc research focused on a basin-scale approach identifying the drivers of the Indian Sub-Antarctic biological carbon pump, with a special interest in phytoplankton group-specific contributions and the influence of the Island Mass Effect (IME). Heather is now pursuing her PhD at FSU and is taking a deeper look at how the IME enhances carbon export. Her research focuses on the Sub-Antarctic Indian sector as well as Subtropical Pacific, mapping the spatial and temporal carbon export ‘footprint’ of islands across oceans and nutrient regimes.
In addition to her PhD, Heather is part of the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) ASAID (air-sea interactions) sub-working group and is a member of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists South African National Committee (APECSSA). Heather’s work largely falls under the current SANAP Project “A nitrogen cycle view of atmospheric CO2 sequestration in the Antarctic Ocean” (Principal Investigator: Dr. S Fawcett, UCT). Through this, Heather has had the opportunity to participate in a number of research expeditions to the Southern Ocean, present her work at both national and international conferences and attend workshops with international collaborators.
Born into a family of avid divers, sailors and fisherman, my love for the ocean was instilled in me at a young age. Our dinner table conversations often involve my parents recounting their sailing years on their home-built yacht, reminiscing over past family diving holidays and deciding on which ocean adventure we should embark on next. The vast majority of my childhood holidays were spent wading around rockpools along the South Coast armed with a yellow bucket and red fishing net. My sister and I would collect all the dogfish we managed to coax into our nets and then redistribute them to new rockpool homes based on the size of the fish. Thank goodness the rising tides eventually drove us away and hopefully restored the ecological unrest we most likely caused. This fascination with the small South Coast rockpool ecosystems eventually grew to larger Southeast Asian coral reef biomes in my teenage years. My family immigrated to Vietnam when I was 14, and although moving to a different country was a big culture shock, it opened up a whole new region of marine exploration. Within a couple of months of moving there I became a certified diver and knew that the view from my fogged-up, leaking mask on my first dive had just cemented my future in marine sciences. Upon matriculation, I volunteered for an NGO in southwest Madagascar where I assisted with coral reef studies, looking at both anthropogenic impacts as well as recovery rates from cyclone damage. Knowing that marine sciences was my future, I started my BSc at UCT with a balmy tropical island goal. Well…that was until I met Sarah Fawcett in my 3rd year at UCT… and I quickly traded my sandy feet, beach towel, golden tan dreams for thermal underwear, blisteringly cold winds and the raging Southern Ocean… and have never looked back!
I love my career in science because of the people and the places. There is such a diverse group of people within the SANAP community and we are all striving towards a common goal – to better understand how the world works. All of our fields are so interconnected and through collaborative efforts, you have the opportunity to work with the most incredible scientists, where you get to share ideas and develop some form of understanding…only to have even more questions! Exploring curiosities and having the freedom of imagination is what drives science forward and when I find fellow scientists who share similar questions, this encourages me to continue pushing boundaries of what we know. My career in science has also taken me to the most amazing places – places I could never dream of going to with another career. From boarding a Russian research vessel in Chile, to sampling the nearshore coastline of the sub-Antarctic island of Kerguelen, to analyzing samples in a lab in the US, to data interpretation at a workshop in the UK to presenting my findings to at a conference in Switzerland… I don’t think there is another career path that would allow me to do all that! Earth Science is a constantly engaging and exciting field to be in. Things never stop… even during a pandemic. The amount of incredible discoveries and papers that have been published in 2020 alone is testament to this. The SANAP community is an impressive force, driving cutting-edge science that is crucial to our global understanding of the past, present and future Earth and is a community I am privileged to be a part of.
Unlike other career paths, science allows you to follow your passions and ‘immerse’ yourself in different fields. This has allowed me to pursue my interest in Southern Ocean biogeochemical research while being involved in the operational side of Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) and Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD) sensor deployments and servicing along the South African coastline with the UCT Research Dive Unit. I am happiest when in or on the ocean and to be able to take part in both the research and the operational sides leaves me smiling from ear to ear.
Something that I find incredibly special about a career in science is it is a career your family can be involved in and get excited about. My family have been an amazing source of support throughout my scientific career. They have helped me label over 15,000 sample bottles (the Forrer family bottle labelling production line is something to behold!), load ships, move -80 freezers from East Pier to UCT and create figures for my theses. They have also met me in Switzerland and Australia after workshops or cruises and have read all of my work from beginning to end. Whenever I phone my dad, he always asks “is the ship in town?” and if the answer is “yes” he follows up with “how many bottles do we have to label, when are we loading the ship, how many trailers do we have to tow?” Although I’m still not 100% convinced my parents know exactly what I do, and often hear my mom describing my work to her friends as “the study of whale food that is saving the planet from climate change”, I definitely couldn’t have made it this far without their support, encouragement and enthusiasm.
To end, I thought I should share three tips for anyone about to embark on their scientific career:
- Never be afraid to ask questions… and ask a lot of them! It will help you grow as a scientist, develop your curiosities and make you even more enthusiastic about your work. By asking ALL the questions, I inevitably designed my own PhD research.
- Choose your supervisor carefully and build a good working relationship them. If you are starting a PhD, this working relationship needs to last 5 years, so make it work from the start. Supervisors are only human and can only do so much, the vast majority of the work and drive needs to come from you. I am personally very lucky to have great relationships with both of my supervisors. I started working with Sarah in my Honours year and she is now part of my PhD committee. By the time I complete my PhD, we would have been working together for close to 10 years!
- A science degree takes a village… so build your ‘scientific village’. While there is an ‘i’ in science, it is not an individual pursuit. From sample collection, lab analyses, data interpretation and theses writing, it is all about teamwork. So, start building your network. This can involve fellow grad students, people you meet on research expeditions or at conferences, mentors from other universities etc. While they might not directly participate in your research, they help keep you motivated and excited about your work.
With that, I would like to acknowledge and thank my SANAP and greater South African ‘scientific village’; Dr. Sarah Fawcett (UCT), for your encouragement and support over the last 5 years. Ruan Parrott, Luca Stirnimann and the rest of the Fawcett Lab group for help with sample collection and analyses. Dr. Rosemary Dorrington (RU) and Dr. Tommy Bornman (SAEON) for all your contributions to ACE and the fun workshops. Dr. Bettine van Vuuren (UJ) for always encouraging me to “Just apply! What’s the worst that can happen?”. Cashifa Karriem for holding the UCT Oceanography Department together and helping with the admin side. Tahlia Henry for spending hours driving the CTD to the ocean depths for my deep water samples and for helping me with my (many) technical questions. Dr. Tommy Ryan-Keogh (CSIR) and Dr. Thato Mtshali (CSIR) for showing me the ropes when it comes to trace metal sampling and for helping me design my sampling schemes. Pieter Truter, Hazel Little-Leighton and the rest of the UCT Dive Unit for helping me pack for cruises, make incubators, service pumps and for always braving the icy Atlantic waters with me. And last but certainly not least, the APECSSA National Committee for our fun catch-ups and shared passion for collaboration between young researchers on a local and international level.
(Text and images supplied by Heather Forrer)
Department of Environment Forestry and Fisheries Media Release: International wildlife documentary series to be filmed on Marion Island – 16 September 2020
Following a rigorous approval process that involved key stakeholders, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) has approved a proposal by the United Kingdom (UK) based film and production company, Plimsoll Productions, to film a wildlife documentary series on Marion Island.
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The two team leaders currently at the South African stations on SANAE(59) and at Marion Island(77) are women. Dr Abigail(Aby) Paton (left) is not new to SANAP and the first women to do 3 consecutive overwinters in Antarctica (SANAE54,55,56 see images below). Winnie Moodaley (middle) was a member of Marion 76 and to stayed on as Leader for Marion 77 so this is also her consecutive year. Michelle(Risi)Jones(right) current at Gough Island is part of Gough 64 and Gough 65.
Celebration of Women in Antarctic Research 23 August 2016,Malaysia. This event was a celebration of female Antarctic researchers and aimed to raise their profile to help provide more visible female role models for early career scientists. SANAP was represented(image right).
Liezel (Elizabeth) Rudolph obtained her Geography BSc and Honours degrees at the University of Pretoria, and a MSc at Rhodes University. She also has a PGCE from UNISA, which allowed her to teach Geography at Abbott’s College in Pretoria for a few years. She is currently in the final stages of her PhD (also in Geography) at the 
Johannes Jacobus Viljoen grew up in the small town of Wolseley in the upper Breede River Valley and started his tertiary education at Stellenbosch University after graduating high school in Ceres. He completed a BSc in Earth Science in 2015 and became the first member in his family with a university qualification. In 2016, he completed a BSc (Hons) Earth Science degree in Environmental Geochemistry where he gained a keen interest in marine biogeochemistry and research. He continued his studies as a graduate research student on phytoplankton distribution in the Southern Ocean at Stellenbosch University within the 
Johan is currently a 
He attended his first SANAP symposium in 2016. He attended the Polar 2018 conference in Davos, Switzerland in 2018 where he presented an oral presentation on his research. He later joined the South African branch of the Association for Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS-SA) as a committee member during his second SANAP symposium in 2018. He currently serves on the APECS-SA national committee as one of the co-chairs. From 2018 – 2019, he also served as the postgraduate representative of the Department of Earth Sciences at SU on the postgraduate committee of the Faculty of Science.
Johan is driven to learn more about marine science and sharing his research and experiences with others. To date, he has published two scientific articles from his MSc research and aims to follow an academic career. In August 2017, he was awarded the opportunity by the 
In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his family and friends, watching documentaries and movies based on true events, reading, hiking and travelling. He considers himself to be a bit of a coffee connoisseur, a budding gardener and an experimental cook.
