Jennifer Veitch (PhD) is the South African PI of the BRICS PARADIGM project and manages the SOMISANA Initiative (A Sustainable Ocean Modelling Initiative: a South African Approach: https://somisana.ac.za/) at the South African Environmental Observation Network. The vision of SOMISANA is for a sustained and transformed critical mass of internationally recognized South African numerical ocean modelling experts who provide accurate information about the changing state of the ocean for enhanced societal impact.

Her team has developed South Africa’s first ocean current forecast model, coupled to an oil trajectory model that is disseminating results freely, and operationally. It has been utilized not only in the case of oil spills, but also for search and rescue operations. To achieve the human capacity required to sustain such an initiative, Jennifer regularly delivers lectures and supervises a number of students from various universities across South Africa.

As a member of the Coastal Ocean and Shelf-Seas Task Team (COSS-TT) and the Operational Systems Working Group (OPOS-WG) of Oceans Predict, the Atlantic Research Panel of CLIVAR, a chair of the Downstream Applications project of the Ocean to Climate Seamless Forecasting Programme and a co-chair of the African Regional Hub of the OceansPrediction Decade Collaborative Centre she hopes to be able to make meaningful South African contributions to the next decade of Ocean Science.