Extraordinary veterinary science lecturer Prof Kobus Eloff is extraordinary in many ways. Apart from the many accolades that he has to his name as a researcher, his ability to reframe life’s adversities is something that garners equal admiration.

Professor Jacobus Nicolaas “Kobus” Eloff stands out in many respects. At 83 years old, he has signed another three-year contract as an extraordinary lecturer in the Department of Paraclinical Sciences in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Pretoria (UP). And he has been recently ranked seventh on Research.com’s best scientist list for biology and biochemistry in South Africa for 2023.

But what also makes him memorable is his ability to twist, turn and thrive with all the tribulations that life throws his way. He constantly remarks how every apparent adversity turned out to be “the best thing that happened to me”, an attitude that infuses him with enthusiasm.

He credits what he believes to be his good fortune to the Biblical teaching from the book of Ecclesiastics: “The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle… It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.” Perhaps, but not everyone has the emotional tenacity to view unfortunate events as a godsend.

“One of the best things that happened to me is the job that I got at Kirstenbosch,” he recalls, referring to his position as Executive Director of the national botanical gardens in Cape Town. And the second-best thing, he says, is when he “lost” the job 10 years later, “because I had started a new career”.

It wasn’t an easy transition though. Prof Eloff had loved being at Kirstenbosch, and he is proud that he was instrumental in amalgamating the gardens with the government-based Botanical Research Institute. “It was a good move because research blossomed,” he says.

In his inaugural professorial address at the University of Cape Town, he spoke about how Kirstenbosch and the other eight national botanical gardens should not be the Victorian relics that some perceived them to be, but thriving centres of horticulture, research and education.

However, after a dispute with the chairman of the board, it was agreed that Prof Eloff would take early retirement – and at 55, he was jobless. “I was an honorary professor at the universities of Pretoria, Stellenbosch and what was then Rand Afrikaans University, and I thought, ‘I am the man.’ But as a white man, I couldn’t get a job.”

He became a builder to generate an income, but before the first house was complete, UP came to the rescue. The University appointed him as a senior lecturer in pharmacology in the Faculty of Health Sciences, doing research on medicinal plants.

The position changed his life. He relished the opportunity to learn new skills, he says matter-of-factly, underplaying the value of the groundbreaking method he had developed to determine bacterial growth in plants. Hailed as quick and 32 times more sensitive than what had been used previously, Prof Eloff acknowledges that it is now used worldwide. “I was lucky,” he says.

The publication outlining this research – titled ‘A sensitive and quick microplate method to determine the minimal inhibitory concentration of plant extracts for bacteria’, published in Planta Medica in 1998 – has 2 377 citations, according to Research.com.

Prof Eloff then initiated the Phytomedicine Programme in the Faculty of Veterinary Science, where he is still involved, even though his work does not generate a monthly salary.

“I’m quite happy,” he says. “They paid me a salary until I turned 80. That was a long term. The University benefits from me because I write papers and they get funding from the government. Then I get part of that funding to go to conferences. I consider myself a research professor because I still guide students and I still write publications. I have supervised about 56 PhDs and 50 MScs to completion, and written more than 350 publications. The students get good jobs and it’s something to be extremely proud of. And I have had so much fun. I have given about 240 international lectures, with more than 50 being invited plenary or keynote lectures.”

Recognised as an internationally acclaimed researcher – he was a National Research Foundation B-rated scientist until 2021 – this year alone, he has spoken at two conferences in India, one near Delhi and the other in Imphal. He has another two lectures lined up in Ireland and a further two in the Netherlands, all to be presented in person.

“I did a number of online lectures during the pandemic,” he says. “They are terrible. You don’t meet your old friends.”

Overseas travel also allows him the chance to visit his two daughters, one in the United Arab Emirates and the other in the Netherlands.

With the Phytomedicine Programme having registered several patents and produced two products in the market, Prof Eloff is now writing up that research. “That is what I do now – I write up lots of papers,” he says.

Uttering his usual refrain, he says, “The best thing that happened to me is that the person who took over as the head of the programme, Prof Lyndy McGaw, is outstanding. She’s doing a much better job than I could ever do, and they’re working in new areas.”

Highlights of his many accomplishments include being elected as a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Bologna Institute, whose former members include Marie Curie and Albert Einstein; being awarded the National Science and Technology Forum’s Research Capacity Development award, sponsored by Eskom, in June 2012 for the successful supervision of 22 PhD and 27 MSc students in the previous 10 years (nearly 84% of the students were black, 35% were female and 39% were from outside South Africa, particularly Africa); being listed as one of 53 “Legends of South African Science” in a book of that title published by the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2017; receiving a bronze medal from the International Horticultural Society; and being awarded silver and gold medals from the SA Association of Botanists as well as honorary life membership to the association.

With the same sense of adventure that he and a school friend used to conduct chemistry experiments – he first did an MSc in Organic Chemistry before he studied Botany – Prof Eloff continues to explore his interests and satisfy his curiosity. Living in a retirement village with his wife, Christna, he has started a chess club as well as a group that consists of up to 70 people who meet once a week to sing golden oldies and Afrikaans songs to piano accompaniment. “And I like reading,” he says. “Who doesn’t like reading?”