Bio
Prof Swanepoel is the Future Africa Research Chair: Sustainable Food Systems at the University of Pretoria (UP), and the director for the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Food Systems (formerly ACoE in Food Security) hosted at Future Africa. He is also the Principal Investigator for the URKI-ARUA GCRF Food Systems Research Network for Africa (FSNet-Africa) Project, and also holds the position of Professor for Agricultural Transformation in Africa (ATA) at UP's Centre for Advancement of Scholarship (CAS).
He has previously served as Dean of Agriculture at the University of Fort Hare (UFH), Director of the Postgraduate School of Agriculture and Rural Development at UP, Head of Animal Science at the University of the Free State (UFS), and Director of Research at UFS. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for African Development (IAD) at Cornell and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Western Australia (UWA).
Prof Swanepoel has served on the boards of several continental organisations, including the African Women in Agriculture Research and Development (AWARD), Food Agriculture and Natural Resource Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), RUFORUM, and the continental Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI). He is Vice-Chairperson of the Australia-Africa University Network (AAUN), a member of the Academy of Science of SA (ASSAf), and a foreign member of the Ugandan National Academy of Science (UNAS).