Professor Slotow is Head of the College of Health Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and oversees the activity in the four Schools of Clinical Medicine, Laboratory Medicine and Medical Sciences, Nursing and Public Health, and Health Sciences.
An eminent and prolific researcher, Professor Slotow's work focuses on strategies for the management of ecologically and economically important large mammals such as lion, elephant and rhino as well as processes influencing biodiversity and conservation management. He takes an evidence-based best-practice approach, and focuses much of his research on using hormonal and behavioural proxies for stress in order to understand how to mitigate effects of interventions for effective management and responding to welfare concerns. Provincially he has made an invaluable contribution towards elephant management planning at the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife reserves in northern Zululand and the Isimangaliso Wetland Park.
Professor Slotow obtained his Bachelor of Science and Honours degrees from Rhodes University and his Master of Science in Zoology from the former University of Natal. He completed his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After some post-doctoral work at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel and at UN, he was appointed a Lecturer at UN in 1996, Senior Lecturer in 2000, Associate Professor in 2002 and full Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in 2007.
He received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Research in 2000 and served on National Research Foundation's (NRF) Grant Evaluation Panels in 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011 and 2012.