Douglas E. Rawlings, Ph.D., FRSSAf, MASSAf trained as a microbiologist at Rhodes University and has been a university academic for approximately thirty six years, of which thirty two have been spent at the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch. He was Chairman of the Microbiology Department at the University of Stellenbosch for thirteen and a half years and is currently acting Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences.

Doug's initial research was in the treatment of tannery and fellmongery effluent. Since the early 1980s his research has mostly concerned the bacteria involved in the extraction of minerals from ores. He was involved in the initial conceptual development of the process for the biooxidation of difficult-to-treat gold-bearing arsenopyrite ores, a process widely used in several countries. Most of his research has concerned the molecular biology of biomining bacteria and their plasmids including how they access the horizontal gene pool when adapting to new challenges.

The findings of his research have been published in about one hundred and fifteen peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He has been inventor or co-inventor of two international and two local patents. In 1997, he edited a book entitled Biomining: Microbes, Theory and Industrial Processes, published by Springer-Verlag and which was sold out within the first year of publication and ten years later co-edited (together with Barrie Johnson) a second book called Biomining, also published by Springer-Verlag.

He has served the maximum of three terms on the editorial board of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology and currently serves on the boards of International Deterioration and Biodegradation, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa and Mobile Genetic Elements. He also serves as an occasional reviewer for many other journals. He has acted as external examiner for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at several universities in South Africa and abroad. He is a member of several learned bodies and is a past-President of the Royal Society of South Africa.

Doug was elected a life-fellow and is also a recipient of the distinguished teacher’s award of the University of Cape Town and the Rector's award for excellent research of the University of Stellenbosch. The SA Society for Microbiology awarded him a silver medal for "a series of outstanding publications" in 1992 and the gold medal for “exceptional service to microbiology over an extended period of time” in 2011. The Society for Industrial Microbiology (USA) recognized his work by presenting him with the PanLab’s award and SA Academy of Science and Arts with the Havenga Prize. He is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and a founder member of the South African Academy of Science. He has delivered many plenary and keynote lectures at local and international conferences, talks on radio (e.g. BBC4 "the good, the bad and the ugly") and was A-rated researcher of the National Research Foundation (Pretoria) for four cycles of five years from 1992 to 2011.