Frank is a German citizen and came to SA as part of the Excellence Programme of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina investigating waterborne uranium migration in mining areas of Germany, South Africa, Australia and Namibia.
Piketh obtained his Phd in Geography and Environmental studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 2000. He was appointed as a full professor at North-West University in 2012 as Co-Chair of the Eskom Power Plant Institute (EPPEI) in the School of Geo and Spatial Science and as Director of this School in June of 2015. He is currently a NRF B-rated Scientist and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.
Kobus van der Walt joined the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education as lecturer in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies in 1990. In 1993 he obtained a Ph.D.