Ekkehard Kopp was born in Germany in 1944. He spent 14 formative years (1953-67) in South Africa, completing Matric in 1962 (as First in Cape Province) and going on to study Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry on an Anglo-American Scholarship to Stellenbosch University (1963-7). Having obtained Hons BSc (cum laude) in Mathematics, he attended the University of Oxford (UK) on the Cape Province Rhodes Scholarship (1967-70), obtaining the DPhil degree.

He has held academic positions at the University of Hull, UK, from October 1970, including serving as Dean of Mathematics (1992-96) and as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (1996-2003). He retired as Professor of Mathematics in July 2004. His career in Hull was interspersed with visiting positions at the universities of Toronto, University of Alberta (Edmonton), Calgary and at the University of California at Berkeley.

He is an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of York, UK (2006-9) and Professor Extraordinary at Stellenbosch University (2004-7). He received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Rostov -on –Don ( Russia ) in May 2002.

Ekkehard was a member of the National Executive of the UK Association of University Teachers from 1982 to 1990, holding the full-time post of National President in 1987-8. He was the founding secretary of the organization for heads of mathematics departments (HoDoMS) in the UK and directed the UK government-funded MathSkills national discipline network from 1996 to 1998.

He has worked mainly in modern probability theory and his publications centre on martingale theory and its varied applications, including the study of models for derivative securities and measures of risk in financial markets. He has more than refereed 50 publications, including four books and two book chapters.

His role in the establishment of SACEMA was largely administrative and managerial, developing its original conception together with Brian Williams and Wayne Getz. He served as principal organiser (with Fritz Hahne, Director of AIMS) and chair of the founding workshop ‘Modelling the dynamics of HIV/AIDS’ (Stellenbosch, December 2003) He convened the project’s informal Executive Committee from February 2004 and, together with Fritz Hahne and Anaci Canca (DST) established the SACEMA Trust, which he has chaired since its inception in August 2005. In this capacity he chaired the panel to appoint the Director.

He describes his current role in the scientific development of SACEMA as ‘modest’, epidemiological modelling not being principal field of expertise. He co-authored ‘Superspreading and the impact of individual variation on disease emergence’ (with J Lloyd-Smith, S Schreiber and WM Getz, ‘Nature’ 438, 355-9, 2005). He has spent substantial periods at the SACEMA premises in 2004-6, developing the project up to its establishment as a DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in May 2006 and in assisting the SACEMA Director with advice on mathematical and strategic questions.