Principal Investigator - French
| Title | Prof. |
| First Names | Hassan |
| Family Name | BENCHERIF |
| Nationality | France |
| Year of Birth | 2nd July 1966 |
Research coordination
Since my recruitment at the Reunion University (RU) I initiated and coordinated several research projects. Most of my research activity focuses on the southern hemisphere especially on the Indian Ocean region, including South Africa. I developed projects on the variability and trends in the tropical stratosphere. Over the last 5 years, I am especially investigating about exchange processes in the UT-LS region, and about stratospheric ozone and water vapour budget and change in the context of climate change, ozone recovery and dynamics change (acceleration of the Brewer-Dobson circulation).
Student supervising and co-supervising
By 1998, in coordination with Professor Max Michaelis from the School of Physics I initiated a bilateral research programme between Reunion University (RU) and UKZN. Initially, the LiDAR was operating on the roof of Desmond Clarence Building, Howard College Campus. After six years under operation, the LiDAR has been moved on the Westville campus in more functional premises of the school of Physics and Chemistry. Thanks to this bilateral research program, more than 30 students from UKZN and RU have completed their Master training based on LiDAR technics or observations. I co-supervised most of them. This LiDAR project also resulted in a Ph.D (Ashokabose MOORGAWA) co-supervised between UKZN (Prof. Michaelis) and UR (myself). Recently, LiDAR profiles recorded over Durban have been used for a UKZN Ph.D (Nkanyiso MBATHA) under a similar co-supervising protocol with Prof. Venkataraman Sivakumar. Overall, in my career, I supervised and co-supervised more than 40 Master students and 10 PhD students (detailed by names in the table below).