Dr Thulwaneng Mashifane featured in CSIR ScienceScope

SOCCO's Dr Thulwaneng Mashifane is featured in the latest edition of the CSIR's ScienceScope magazine (Volume 24, Number 2 of 2026), in a profile on ocean modelling and machine learning for climate science.

Thulwaneng describes his journey from freshwater aquaculture to ocean modelling, a switch sparked by his first encounter with ocean models during a master's in applied marine science at the University of Cape Town. At SOCCO, he works on improving computer models of how the Southern Ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, testing them against measurements from ships, satellites and autonomous instruments.

He also discusses his machine-learning research into declining oxygen levels in the Benguela and Agulhas current systems, and why early detection matters for marine life and the fisheries that depend on it. For young people interested in the field, his advice is to build curiosity and technical skills together, and to start working with real ocean data early.

His recent work includes studies of ocean deoxygenation in the Agulhas Current (Progress in Oceanography, 2025) and the Benguela upwelling system (Limnology & Oceanography Letters, 2026), and of how plankton traits shape the bloom cycle in models (Geophysical Research Letters, 2025). See our publications page for more.

Read the full profile in ScienceScope (PDF)

Photo: CSIR ScienceScope.