The world celebrated Pi Day on March 14 (3/14). Pi day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant pi (π). The celebration is the original brainchild of the Exploratorium in San Francisco. It is celebrated on this date due to the way that the United States of America (USA) configures its dates for example 14 March is written as 3/14 – the first three digits of Pi.

Pi Day is now a global celebration of mathematics and nerdiness with events springing up all over the world. Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, and is a mathematical constant. With our date system, 22/7 (22 July) is also Pi Approximation Day: the closest fraction to 3.14

The ORCID community took part, celebrating its own #ORCIDPi Day and its 3,141,593rd registrant - who just happens to be the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity's (NRF-SAIAB’s) very own Principal Scientist, Professor Olaf Weyl. Asked about this, Prof Weyl enthused that he's "Proud to be Pi!" He received his own personalised ORCID T-shirt, a box of delicious ORCID cookies, an ORCID cooking set, and more. They have, in addition, also launched a “Spotify Playlist” that features the best Pi and Pie songs, in celebration of Prof Weyl’s registration with ORCID.

ORCID, which was started in 2012, is a member-based, non-profit organisation supported by a global community of organisational members, including research organisations, publishers, funders, professional associations, and other stakeholders in the research ecosystem.

To celebrate Pi Day with their wider community, ORCID launched the #ORCIDPiDay countdown together with an online competition for the best pie pictures and tweets.

ORCID’s vision is a world where all who participate in research and innovation, from imagining to building and managing, are uniquely identified and connected to their contributions across disciplines, and borders, and time. ORCID provides an identifier for individuals to use with their name as they engage in research and innovation activities. ORCID provides open tools that enable transparent and trustworthy connections between researchers, their contributions, and affiliations. ORCID provides this service to help people find information and to simplify reporting and analysis.

According to Gerhard Moolman, Manager of Business Intelligence at NRF Corporate Governance, the NRF has made a policy decision to, where appropriate, include ORCID in all of its business processes. To this end the NRF is advising all its authors to register on ORCID and ensure that all their publications are linked to their profiles.