Don Cowan was educated (BSc, MSc, PhD, and Postdoc) at the University of Waikato (New Zealand) before moving to a Lectureship at University College London (UK) in 1985. After 16 years in London, he was appointed as the Chair of Microbiology and Head of the Department of Biotechnology at the University of the Western Cape (RSA), where he established the Institute for Microbial Ecology and Metagenomics. In 2012, he moved to the University of Pretoria, where he is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology and the Director of the Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics. Don’s research is in the fields of microbial ecology and microbial genomics. Much of his research focuses on the microbiology of extreme environments, including hot (Namib) and cold (Antarctic) desert soils. Don has published over 450 research papers, review articles, and book chapters. He has a Scopus H-index of 58. Don was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa in 2007, Member of ASSAf in 2008, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2009. He was awarded the SASM Medal for Research Excellence in 2009. He was previously President of the Royal Society of South Africa. In April 2015, he received the University of Pretoria’s highest research award, the Chancellor’s Medal. He was awarded an NRF A1 rating in 2017, the 2019 RSSAf John F.W. Herschel medal, the University of Pretoria’s 2020 Exceptional Supervisor’s Award, and the 2021 SASBMB Gold Medal.