Frank Eckardt

Frank Eckardt is a Geomorphologist who has been at UCT since 2005. Originally from Germany and raised and educated in the UK, Frank obtained a BSc in Geography at Kings College London, an MSc in applied Remote Sensing from Cranfield and a PhD from the School of Geography in Oxford. He is also a satellite application alumni of the ISU SSP 1997.

After working as an undergraduate on wet glacial forelands in Norway and coastal marine habitats in Belize he shifted to southern African drylands while conducting his PhD fieldwork in Namibia. Prior to coming to UCT, Frank was teaching physical geography and remote sensing at the University of Botswana in Gaborone. He is currently the EGS exams coordinator as well as the chair of the UCT science faculty marketing committee and the acting president of the South African Association of Geomorphologists (SAAG). In 2012 Frank organised the SAAG meeting at Gobabeb to celebrate 50 Years of Research at the Desert Research Station.

Current Teaching: Frank now teaches global physical geography with focus on earth observation as well as contemporary polar, tropical and arid land surface dynamics. He is also the Convener of EGS 2013F. In the third year, students are exposed to a closer look at Southern Africa's Geomorphology which among other things includes topics such as landscape evolution, weathering, soils, duricrusts, as well as dust production (EGS 3020F). His Honours course in geomorphology is challenging students to apply and develop and deeper understanding of earth surface systems concepts to topics related to their thesis.

Research Interests

Some of his current research interests deals with earth surface processes in the Central Namib Desert as well as the Makgadikgadi Basin in Botswana with focus on crusts, soil chemistry, evaporation products, hyper saline springs and deposits as well as dust production. He has a C-rating from the NRF and has supervised graduate projects in the areas of land cover change, applied remote sensing, landscape evolution, dust source processes and chemistry. His collaborators include academics in Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton, Munich, Pretoria, UWC and UNAM.