AOCA Director and Scientific Advisor
Dr Compagno was the Head of the Shark Research Centre and Curator of Fishes , Iziko – South African Museum. He is an internationally recognised expert on sharks who obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University in the United States. He is a foremost world expert on systematics, morphology, evolution, paleontology, zoogeography, diversity, natural history, and conservation of sharklike fishes.
He won the Harvard University and Stanford University Scholarships in Biology for graduate work and is also the winner of numerous awards and fellowships. He is the regional vice-chairperson of the IUCN Shark Specialists Group and a research consultant for Fisheries Division of FAO of the United Nations.
He has published over 200 papers, popular articles, reports, web site reports, books and book chapters. His major books include Sharks of the Order Carcharhiniformes, the 1984 FAO catalogue of world sharks, the revised 2001 FAO catalogue of world sharks, and a field guide to southern African cartilaginous fishes co-authored with D. A. Ebert and M. J. Smale.