Thomas Ryan-Keogh

CSIR, South Africa

Thomas is based in Cape Town at the Southern Ocean Carbon-Climate Observatory (SOCCO), CSIR. His research examines how biogeochemical cycling of nutrients impacts phytoplankton ecophysiology, with a particular focus on how climate change may be impacting the biological carbon pump. He uses a variety of tools including ship-based experiments and measurements, autonomous platforms such as gliders and Argo floats, remote sensing data products, and outputs from CMIP6 climate models.

Thomas graduated with his doctoral degree in 2014 from the University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K., where he investigated how we can use fluorescence measurements of phytoplankton to understand how iron limitation impacts their physiology. In 2015, he moved to Cape Town to start a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Cape Town, before becoming a Research Scientist at SOCCO in 2017, where he has remained ever since. Thomas has participated in 12 research cruises, to both the North Atlantic and Southern Ocean.

Thomas is the current national GEOTRACES SSC representative for South Africa, whilst also serving as the South African BioGeoSCAPES International Implementation Committee representative and the Chapter 3 Co-Lead for the BioGeoSCAPES Science Plan.