The compilers of Research.com’s best scientists list might be surprised to discover that the person ranked fifth in South Africa in animal science and veterinary for 2023 is an 88-year-old emeritus professor who lives in a retirement village. Not that his age or lack of a laboratory at hand is a deterrent to Prof Ivan Horak of the University of Pretoria (UP).

“I’m tying up loose ends, using data from my old data journals, then publishing, usually with Dr Jim Gallivan in Canada and Dr Kerstin Junker who works at Onderstepoort for the Agricultural Research Council,” Prof Horak said. “I’ve still got papers that are waiting to be approved, one under review, and two or three in a manuscript format that we are going to submit.”

That’s a publishing record that would put other full-time academics to shame. But then Prof Horak has never followed the norm when it comes to his academic record. Not only is he a qualified vet, but he also has four doctoral degrees. The first was on conical flukes (small pear-shaped parasites that live in the stomachs of cattle) at UP.

“I felt I should at least have a doctorate for promotion possibilities,” he said. “A doctorate is always an advantage to have in a lecturing post or even in a straight research post.”

The other degrees were prompted more by his research interests.

After working on parasites of wild and domestic animals, he started doing a PhD on them under UP zoology professor Waldo Meester, who moved to the University of KwaZulu-Natal, so Prof Horak ended by graduating from there.

“The third one was another doctorate in veterinary science, and was based on research that had already been published,” he explained. “It was the first doctorate in this category to be accepted at the Faculty of Veterinary Science at UP after I had come back from Rhodes University, where I was from 1982 to 1987.”

The fourth doctorate, he said matter-of-factly, was from the University of the Free State, and was also based on published work, specifically on ticks.

According to Research.com, Prof Horak’s most cited works include ‘The genus Rhipicephalus (Acari, Ixodidae): A guide to the brown ticks of the world’, which has 786 citations; ‘The Argasidae, Ixodidae and Nuttalliellidae (Acari: Ixodida) of the world: A list of valid species names’, which has 658 citations; and ‘The hard ticks of the world’, with 482 citations. He is placed 217th in the world on Research.com’s rankings

But his research is not only about ticks.

“When I first applied for a position at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute in 1961, I was given a choice of either poultry or worms, which are of veterinary importance. I took the worms, because I had always fiddled around with insects when I was small. So I worked on worms together with the ticks and I am still publishing on both.”

Being driven by curiosity has always been a big part of his research. His first job after graduating as a vet in 1957 was on a ranch in northern KwaZulu-Natal where he did artificial insemination on large herds of cows, “a first in South Africa under ranching conditions”, he said.

Five parasites have been named after him. This includes Haemonchus horaki, commonly known as wire worms, which are found in the stomach of ruminants where they may suck a lot of blood.

He rather enjoys the fact that Haemonchus horaki is found in grey rhebok (an antelope) in the Bontebok National Park close to  Swellendam. The first Horak, Jan, who came to South African from Germany in about 1736 (although the family’s origins are in what is now the Czech Republic) was the second landdrost of Swellendam.

“The area which now includes the Bontebok Park fell under his jurisdiction,” Prof Horak said.

There is another historical connection between his research and his ancestry. The South African Academy of Science and Arts awarded Prof Horak the MT Steyn Medal in 2016 for his “exceptional achievement in natural sciences”. In 1898, his grandfather was appointed as the private secretary of President MT Steyn (who was president of the Orange Free State).

“So there’s more than 100 years that span my grandfather’s connection with the actual living MT Steyn,” said Prof Horak, beaming with pride.

Prof Horak, placed 519th in the world on Research.com's 2023 rankings, had an office at UP’s faculty in Onderstepoort until four years ago. He said he doesn’t need an official office to continue his work, which he has no intention of stopping.

“It is something to do, something to look forward to in a way, to see yourself published,” he said, although he admits he has a new passion. In the past 18 months, he has taken to reading novels. True to his scientific thinking, he has documented how many he reads. “Four a month – 50 a year,” he said.