While other kids were collecting marbles, Alan Whitfield was collecting pictures of fish. Recently awarded the prestigious Doctor of Science (DSc) from Rhodes University, Whitfield, who is Chief Scientist at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, describes how a visit to the Durban Aquarium, at the age of 8, had changed his life.
While other kids were collecting marbles, Alan Whitfield was collecting pictures of fish. Recently awarded the prestigious Doctor of Science (DSc) from Rhodes University, Whitfield, who is Chief Scientist at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, describes how a visit to the Durban Aquarium, at the age of 8, had changed his life.
"My aunt had to battle to get me out,” he recalls. Two years later, Whitfield began collecting pictures of fish, brochures from aquariums, and vacancy adverts for fish scientists, and stuck these into a neat little album.
“My dad knew about my love for fish and that I wanted to become a fish scientist. So when he read the newspaper and saw something fish-related, he would call me to have a look. That is how I started my album,” Whitfield said.
A Christmas holiday with his grandparents on the banks of the Swartkops Estuary in the Eastern Cape cemented Whitfield's interest in the watery world and, after doing a Bachelor of Science in Zoology and Botany at the then University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, he did honours in Zoology and a Masters and PhD in Ichthyology.
At Sedgefield, in the southern Cape, Whitfield was employed as a Research Officer by Rhodes University until 1987, when he joined the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology, now known as the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. In his submission for the Doctor of Science degree, Whitfield acknowledged past South African estuarine ichthyologists for the work they had contributed to “enriching my scientific experience of these fascinating coastal ecosystems”.
Whitfield's research career spans 35 years, with more than 130 published papers reflecting a significant contribution to the study of biology and ecology of fishes in South African estuaries. He confesses that achieving a DSc was never a goal.
"What triggered pursuing this was the National Research Foundation performance system," he said. "Every two years, we are asked what new training or qualifications one is going to aim for. I thought of all the training that I would like to do – eventually settling on a DSc as the most interesting and challenging.” The South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity is a national facility of the National Research Foundation.
Whitfield's hobby is trading on the stock exchange. "When I retire as a scientist I want to become a serious short and medium-term trader,” he says. Whitfield also plans to write a book on fishes and estuaries that “won’t be linked to any performance system!” Whitfield's DSc degree will be conferred at the Rhodes University Graduation Ceremony in April.
