Nigel C Bennett is a professor of zoology at the University of Pretoria (UP) and also occupies the Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation (NRF) Research Chair in the field of Mammalian Behavioural Ecology and Physiology and the UP Austin Roberts Chair of African Mammalogy. Bennett’s research focus is ecology, animal physiology and behaviour using the African mole-rat as his model animal.  He and his co-workers have investigated the ecological and physiological factors that affect the control of reproduction and the evolution of sociality. Unlike other researchers investigating cooperative breeding in mammals, he has done so from a variety of perspectives. The strength of this multi-faceted approach is that it has led to an integrated understanding of reproductive suppression in mole-rats of a type that has not been achieved for any other taxa. His research has set the benchmark for our understanding of phylogenetic and ecological constraints regulating reproductive success and social evolution in mammalian species. His research record ranks him among the best researchers studying social regulation of reproduction in any group of mammals in the world. Bennett obtained his BSc Hons. in 1983 from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom (UK). After completing his PhD at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 1988 he was employed as a junior lecturer and senior researcher in zoology at the institution until 1995 when he was appointed as a senior lecturer in the department of zoology and entomology at the UP. He was promoted to full professor in 2001.  Bennett holds an A rating by the National Research Foundation. Bennett has published 399 papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals, co-authored a specialist book published by Cambridge University Press and has penned fourteen chapters in books. Bennett is the world leader in African mole-rat biology and in particular reproductive physiology.