David Holgate is a professor of Mathematics at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) where he is also Deputy Dean responsible for Teaching and Learning in their Faculty of Natural Sciences.  He is passionate about sharing his love for pure mathematics through teaching and academic service in the context of South Africa, where he believes that Mathematics has a truly powerful role to play in nation building and addressing social injustice.

Besides his research interest in General Topology and Category Theory, for which he holds a B-rating from the South African NRF, David maintains a broad involvement in national mathematics activities.  Beyond his contribution to the National Graduate Academy since its inception, he is currently on the Council of the South African Mathematical Society (SAMS), the board of the South African Mathematics Foundation (SAMF) and the council of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS).

Before joining UWC David held positions at the University of Cape Town, where he completed his PhD in 1995, and the University of Stellenbosch, where he headed the Mathematics Division of their Department of Mathematical Sciences for a while.  Over the course of his academic career he has been a research guest at over 20 universities across the globe and held visiting positions at the University of Bremen (Germany) and the Brno University of Technology (Czech Republic).

David makes sure that mathematics does not take all his time away from his life’s main passions – his family and the fynbos, mountains and oceans of the Western Cape.