Andre Eric Punt (born February 1965) is a South African

fisheries scientist Fisheries science is the academic discipline of managing and understanding fisheries. It is a multidisciplinary science, which draws on the disciplines of limnology, oceanography, freshwater biology, marine biology, meteorology, conservation, ...

and

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, best known for his work on fisheries stock assessment. He received the K. Radway Allen Award in 1999 for his contributions to fisheries science.

Early years and education

Andre Punt was born in February 1965 in Cape Town, South Africa. He attended the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

, where he received a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

(with

Honours Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...

) in Computer Science in 1986, an MSc in Applied Mathematics in 1988, and a PhD in Applied Mathematics in 1991.Punt, Andre E. (1988
"Model selection for the dynamics of Southern African hake resources"
MSc thesis,

(September 1988). Accessed July 21, 2020. As a PhD student in the late 1980s, Punt and his colleague Doug Butterworth competed in an informal competition against other international research groups to develop computer simulations that could guide quota decisions for whale harvests. Punt and his collaborators went on to produce simulations and formulae that could account for uncertainties in whale abundance data. These approaches were subsequently applied to stock assessments for South Africa's

hake The term hake refers to fish in the: * Family Merlucciidae of northern and southern oceans * Family Phycidae (sometimes considered the subfamily Phycinae in the family Gadidae) of the northern oceans Hake Hake is in the same taxonomic order ( ...

sardine "Sardine" and "pilchard" are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring family Clupeidae. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century, a folk etymology says it comes from the It ...

anchovy An anchovy is a small, common forage fish of the family Engraulidae. Most species are found in marine waters, but several will enter brackish water, and some in South America are restricted to fresh water. More than 140 species are placed in 1 ...

and West Coast rock lobster fisheries.

Career

In 1992, after completing his doctoral studies, Punt joined the School of Fisheries at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

as a research associate. In 1994, he moved to Australia to work as a resource modeller in the CSIRO's Division of Marine Research. Here, his work on stock assessments was influential for Australian fisheries. In 1999, the

Australian Society for Fish Biology The Australian Society for Fish Biology (ASFB) is a professional organisation of ichthyology, fish and fisheries researchers. Founded in 1971, the society describes itself as a "professional, independent, non-profit, non-commercial and non-aligne ...

awarded Punt its K. Radway Allen Award in recognition of his scientific contributions. He later rejoined the University of Washington, in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. Punt is known for his international collaborations, particularly his work with the

International Whaling Commission The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is a specialised regional fishery management organisation, established under the terms of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) to "provide for the proper conservation ...

and the

International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas / es, Comisión Internacional para la Conservación del Atún Atlántico (CICAA) , motto = , formation = , type = tuna regional fishery management organisation , status = , purpose = Fisheries manag ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Punt, Andre South African biologists South African mathematicians University of Cape Town alumni 1965 births Living people