Fitz News in Africa - Birds & Birding: "The birth and rise of the Fitztitute (Part 2)"

"The Fitztitute’s first director assumed office in September 1960. Remarkably, there have been only four directors during the 50 years of the Fitztitute’s history: Jack Winterbottom (1960–1971), Roy Siegfried (1972–1995), Morné du Plessis (1997–2007) and Phil Hockey (2008–present).

"In 1972, as part of a strengthening of the relationship between the Fitztitute and the University of Cape Town, a teaching component (mostly postgraduate) was added to the Fitztitute’s terms of reference. Because of the mutually reinforcing relationship between postgraduate teaching and research, once the Fitztitute had built up a ‘critical mass’ of graduate students, its research prospered. But the winds of political change were gathering. By the mid-1980s, politically imposed intellectual sanctions were firmly in place and their associated impacts were felt across almost the full spectrum of science in South Africa. Despite this, in 1989 ornithology was identified as the South African scientific discipline that had the greatest international impact..." more...