Dr. Pierre Cilliers obtained BSc and Hons degrees in Engineering at University of Pretoria: He obtained a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering at The George Washington University and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at The Ohio State University.

In 2004 he was appointed at the Space Science Directorate (previously Hermanus Magnetic Observatory) of the South African National Space Agency as a space physicist, where he lead the research on ionospheric tomography using GPS.

In 2010 he was appointed Adjunct Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at CPUT where he supervises several postgraduate students on research on Space Weather applications using CubeSats.

In 2013 he was appointed Adjunct Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at UCT where he supervises several postgraduate students on research on geomagnetically induced currents and other Space Weather applications.

His current research focus areas are on Ionospheric Scintillation, geomagnetically induced currents, and HF radio propagation.

He has supervised several postgraduate students at SANSA and has co-authored more than 70 peer reviewed publications since joining SANSA.