Prof. KAREN ESLER
Career category: CONSERVATION ECOLOGY
Current Employment: Associate Professor, Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, University of Stellenbosch
Email address: kje@sun.ac.za

Career History:
I was born & raised in Zimbabwe, but completed my last 2 years of school in South Africa. I studied for all my degrees (Undergraduate degree in Botany and Zoology) up to a PhD at UCT (1984 - 1993). I did a postdoctoral year at University of California, Los Angeles in 1994. I started working as a lecturer in the University of Stellenbosch in 1995 and am now as associate professor at the Dept of Conservation Ecology & Entomology, University of Stellenbosch (since Jan 2005). As an arid zone ecologist at heart, my overall research goals are to explain community structure, population processes and vegetation dynamics in shrublands and arid ecosystems in response to natural and human induced disturbances. My primary focus is seed bank ecology, germination ecology, seedling establishment and phenology. I also advise on aspects of restoration and conservation and currently serve on advisory board for Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve, committee of South African Women in Science and Engineering and Council for South African Association of Botanists.