Stefan Schoombie

Stefan Schoombie has a background in marine biology and a particular interest in marine vertebrates and their conservation. His most recent work involved a post-doctoral fellowship through the University of Cape Town using machine learning to estimate Antarctic penguin foraging effort from animal attached tags (video and accelerometer data). He was awarded a PhD degree in December 2021 through the University of Cape Town, with his thesis focussing on the use of bio-logging technology to understand animal behaviour. Stefan started developing his own bio-logging devices in 2016 and ultimately used these in his PhD research. Most of his academic career stems from work on Marion Island, in the southern Indian Ocean, where he has spent a vast amount of time in past eight years, including three overwintering stints. During his time on Marion Island, Stefan was involved in a range of research projects, focussing on the conservation of seabirds that breed in the Southern Ocean. Stefan is passionate about the combination of technology and biology and strives to establish an African capability to develop and manufacture data loggers used in natural sciences, which are typically imported at great costs under present conditions.