Some of the awards that confirmed and celebrated his excellence as an academic and researcher of international calibre include the 2009 Continental Scientist Award of the African Union in 2009, the National Science and Technology Forum’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, as well as the 2012 Earth Sciences Award of TWAS (World Academy of Science).

Prof Eriksson was also the recipient of the National Research Foundation President’s Award in 2007, as well as the Fellowship Award of the Geological Society of Africa and the South Africa Medal of the Southern African Association for the Advancement of Science, both in 2008.

He has also been an “Outstanding Academic Achiever” of the University of Pretoria (UP) since 1999, and his awards include the Medal for Academic Excellence, the Centenary Research Medal, and the Chancellor’s Award for Research (all from UP).

Prof Eriksson obtained his BSc (Geology) from the University of Natal in 1974, after which he worked as an exploration geologist for Anglo American in Namaqualand for two years. He returned to the University of Natal (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal) in 1977, where he obtained his Honours (Geology) degree, followed by an MSc (1979) and a PhD (1984). In July 1982 Prof Eriksson joined the UP Department of Geology as a lecturer, and was promoted through the ranks, becoming professor in 1994. In 1998 he obtained the Dr rer nat habil (higher doctorate) from Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany. In December 2006, he was appointed as the Head of the Department of Geology, and in June 2008 as acting Chair of the School of Physical Sciences (a position he held until the end of 2009).

Prof Eriksson taught sedimentology, basin analysis, historical geology and crustal evolution from 1982 until 2006, and currently lectures in the first two subjects. He is author and co-author of 205 scientific papers and book contributions, and co-edited two books (both published by Elsevier Science): The Precambrian Earth: tempos and events (2004), and Atlas of Microbial Mat Features preserved within the Siliciclastic Rock Record (2007).

He is currently editor-in-chief of the Journal of African Earth Sciences and associate editor of the journals Gondwana Research, and Marine and Petroleum Geology and is also a board member of Sedimentary Geology. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of South Africa, a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, and also a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and of the Academy of Science of South Africa.