Prof Eriksson is one of the winners of the TWAS Awards for 2012, which were announced at the Academy's 23rd General Meeting in September in Tianjin, China.

TWAS is an autonomous international organisation based in Trieste, Italy. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable development in the South.

The prizes were awarded in eight fields, namely Agricultural Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Mathematics, Medical Sciences and Physics.

Each TWAS Prize carries a cash award of USD15 000. The winners will lecture about their research at the 24th General Meeting of TWAS in Argentina in 2013, where they will also receive a plaque and the prize money.

Prof Eriksson is Head of the Department of Geology and founder of two international working groups. He is a Fellow of the Geological Societies of both South Africa and Africa, a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Science of SA and a Fellow of the Royal Society of SA.

He has been a guest editor of 17 special journal issues, of which 16 were international. Prof Eriksson is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of African Earth Sciences and is an associate editor of Gondwana Research and Marine and Petroleum Geology. During his career he has authored and co-authored over 200 papers in geological journals and books, and he has over 1380 citations in the ISI index to these works. He is a B1-rated NRF scientist and has received the Exceptional Achievers Award five times.

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