Role: Head of Research and Doctoral Programmes, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences

Work: Monitoring and Evaluation and advance data analysis. Multivariate Analysis Survival analysis and Modeling Nonparametric Statistics and E-Learning for Epidemiology & Statistics Epidemiology Logistic Regression

Role: Head of Medical Genetics at Tygerberg Hospital

Work: Prof Moosa runs the undiagnosed disease programme in sub-Saharan Africa, bringing the latest technology to the genetics clinics to benefit patients and families living with rare diseases.

Role: Senior lecturer, epidemiologist, and public health researcher at Stellenbosch University

Work: Dr Moodley is a specialist in Epidemiology, Gastrointestinal cancer and Surgical oncology. He worked as a scientific writing intern at the SAMRC HIV Prevention Research Unit in Durban in 2008 and that is where his passion for public health research started.

Role: Associate professor in immunology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, Stellenbosch University

Work: Innate immunity, understanding the role of regulatory myeloid cells in host susceptibility to TB disease, primarily through mechanistic investigations in well-defined clinical cohorts, animal models and 3D printed organoids.

Role: Deputy Director and Specialist Scientist at Cochrane South Africa

Work: Dr Ndwandwe is responsible for conducting primary and secondary research on vaccine-related topics; vaccine implementation, clinical trial registration, HIV prevention trial implementation, molecular mycobacteriology, and evidence-informed decision-making processes

Role: Research Technologist in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science at the Tshwane University of Technology

Work: Her research is focused on determining the quality, safety and efficacy (QSE) of herbal raw materials and products, using various techniques. This includes the chemical profiling of secondary metabolites in South African medicinal plants, using various chromatography, vibrational spectroscopy and imaging spectroscopy methods.

Role: Professor and Member of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) at the University of Cape Town (UCT).

Work: Viral immunologist, studying the human immune response to infections. Her research group’s current focus is on understanding immunity during HIV-TB co-infection, and in particular the defects in cellular immunity that lead to an increase in TB risk during HIV infection.

Role: Deputy Director: Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)

Work: Scaling up AIDS care and treatment in Southern Africa, Reducing mortality in TB-HIV co-infection, immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome, pharmacokinetic drug interactions and additive drug toxicity in TB HIV co-infection

Role: Co-principal investigator for Global Immunology and Immune Sequencing for Epidemic Response in South Africa (GIISER-SA)

Work: HIV virus-host dynamics, with a focus on how viral evolution during chronic HIV infection can be exploited to design preventative vaccines. more recent research within the viral respiratory pathogen field focuses on influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

Role: Chief Specialist Scientist in the Gender and Health Research Unit (GHRU), South African Medical Research Council

Work: Within the Gender and Health Research Unit to transform violent and harmful masculinities and support boys and men to construct non-violent and health-promoting masculinities and to improve boys’ and men’s mental health and reduce their interpersonal violence perpetration.

Role: Professor Robert Mash is the Executive Head of the Department of Family and Emergency Medicine at Stellenbosch University and a Specialist Family Physician.

Work: His fields of research and area of expertise are in Clinical research on diabetes related to family medicine and primary health care. Educational research in the field of family medicine and primary health care. Health services research in the field of family medicine and primary health care.

Role: Associate Professor in Public Health at University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Work: Prof Garrett is a Technical Expert Consultant of the South African National Strategic Plan (NSP) for HIV, TB and STIs 2023 – 2028 and provides input on objectives and interventions on reducing STIs, cervical cancer and hepatitis that draws on his extensive experience in evaluating point of care diagnostics and STI interventions.

Role: Head of  Epidemiology at the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis, of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD)

Work: Providing data to describe the epidemiology of respiratory illness in South Africa including burden, risk factors for severe illness, vaccine effectiveness and cost effectiveness of interventions

Role: Director – Association of African Medicinal Plants Standards (AAMPS)

Work: Pharmaceutical drug discovery and regulatory affairs, Nutraceutical and cannabinoid research, Pharmaceutical policy and Bioentrepreneurship

Professor Mark Tomlinson is the Co-Director of the Institute for Life Course Health Research in the Department of Global Health, Stellenbosch University. He is also a Professor of Maternal and Child Health at the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Queens University in Belfast, United Kingdom. Prior to qualifying as a clinical psychologist from the University of Cape Town, he worked in the field of Child and Youth Care for 10 years. He holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. He has been involved in research for the last 22 years.

Prof Tomlinson possesses extensive research expertise encompassing child and adolescent development, early community-based health interventions, longitudinal intervention trials, and child, adolescent, research priority setting and maternal mental health. He has led key cohort research studies tracking the longitudinal impact of early interventions in South Africa, aimed at improving maternal and child health and child development. Specifically, he has led two longitudinal research cohorts of 13 and 19 years respectively; as well as a cohort study across 10 years in three African countries. To date, he has been a principal investigator (PI) or co-investigator on grants totaling over $45million (over R800 million).

Prof Tomlinson has to date published 371 papers in peer reviewed publications such as Lancet; PLOS Medicine; JAMA; Nature Medicine; Social Science and Medicine; Lancet Global Health and the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Additionally, he has published 23 book chapters, and edited four books. Professor Tomlinson has an H-Index of 78 (Google Scholar) and has over 23 000 citations. He is a sought after invited/plenary speaker relating to global health, child and adolescent development, and research priority setting. In the course of 2023 alone for example, he was a plenary speaker at 7 local and international conferences.

Professor Tomlinson has contributed to several seminal global publications, notably the World Health Organization document the Nurturing Care Framework: A Framework for Helping Children Survive and Thrive to Transform Health and Human Potential (2018). He was one of the coordinating writers of the framework which has subsequently been adopted by many countries.  

Professor Tomlinson was elected as member of the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2017. He received the Chancellor Award from Stellenbosch University in 2015 which recognizes leading academics at the institution for their sustained contributions to excellence in research. This is the highest research award at Stellenbosch University and can only be awarded once. He has also received the Stellenbosch University Rectors Award for Research Excellence on 10 occasions.

While currently based at Stellenbosch University, Prof Tomlinson has had a long record of collaboration with the SAMRC. In addition, from 2006-2008 he was a Senior Scientist in the Health Systems Research Unit at the SAMRC.

Professor Steve Tollman is a Research Professor and the Head of the Division of Health and Population, School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand. He also serves as the Director, SAMRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt)

Professor Tollman is devoted to “bringing the best science” to bear on the persisting – at times intractable – challenges facing rural health and development in South and sub-Saharan Africa. Neglect of rural health and wellbeing through the apartheid years, and imperatives arising in the democratic era, posed compelling questions on drivers of health and wellbeing, their determinants, and interventions that can be taken to scale. Responding meant confronting a profound data/evidence gap and led to his pioneering longitudinal population-based research platforms. These can generate data/findings attuned to critical health and development challenges, support varied study designs and disciplines, and foster engagement of local communities and public/private sector leadership (health, social services, education, innovation). 

In 1992/3 Steve introduced the Agincourt longitudinal health and socio-demographic surveillance system (HDSS), today covering a ‘whole population cohort’ of about120,000 people in 22,000 households and 31 villages in northeast South Africa, adjacent to the Kruger National Park near southern Mozambique. He played lead roles inestablishing SA and African research networks that harness the strengths of longitudinal research platforms for example the South African Population Research Infrastructure Network (SAPRIN)  and INDEPTH Network . These all generate vital insights into health and population transitions covering dramatic socio-political change, the HIV/AIDS epidemic and rise in cardiometabolic conditions, coupled with mental ill-health and COVID-19, which together render multimorbidity a pervasive challenge.

He has received numerous awards, to name a few: In 2023 he received the Alumni Award of Merit from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. In 2018 the National Science and Technology Foundation- South 32 award. In 2013 the INDEPTH Prize for Extraordinary Research in Population and Health (team award for article) and in 2010 the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Academic Citizenship from University of the Witwatersrand.

Prof Tollman holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Global Health from Umeå University of Sweden

In describing his relationship with the SAMRC Prof Tollman has expressed, “The SAMRC is an outstanding institution, central to South Africa’s research and health development capability. At both personal and Unit level, we enjoy a rewarding and mutually enriching relationship that adds exceptional value to the efforts and aspirations of our SAMRC/Wits research unit.”

Professor Anthony Okoh is a professor of Microbiology and the Director of the South African Medical Research Council's Microbial Water Quality Monitoring Centre at the University of Fort Hare. He is also the leader of the Water Research for Sustainable Development Niche Area at the University of Fort Hare.

Prof Okoh holds a B.Sc. (Hon) in Microbiology (Second Class Upper), M.Sc. (Microbiology) (Distinction) and Ph.D. (Microbiology).

His research expertise falls within the aegis of Environmental or Public Health Microbiology, with emphasis on water/wastewater quality and genomics, emerging and re-emerging pathogens and chemical pollutants in the environment, human and ecological health risk assessments, reservoirs of antibiotic resistance, and bioactive compounds of health and biotechnological importance.

 In 2008 Professor Okoh received the University of Fort Hare Vice-Chancellor Emerging Researcher Award, which was followed by the Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Researcher Award in 2011. Prof Okoh has published over 500 journal articles, supervised to completion 57 PhD and 70 MSc students, and delivered many plenaries, keynote addresses and distinguished guest lectures.

In 2009, Prof Okoh represent South Africa in the international collaboration on the Surveillance of Reservoirs of Antibiotic Resistance (ISRAR) under the auspices of the Alliance for the Prudent use of Antibiotics (APUA) with headquarters in the Boston, USA.  He was also a member of the South Africa delegation to Oman on the Oman-South Africa bilateral cooperation Workshop on Water & Agri-biotechnology in 2016. Also, in recognition of his immense contribution environmental vibriology research, Prof Okoh was appointed in 2023 to serve a member of the Cholera Advisory Panel for the Water Research Commission of South Africa.

Prof Okoh also served as President of the South Africa Society for Microbiology (2011-2013). Currently, he is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa; Fellow of the Water Institute of Southern Africa; Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences; Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology; Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences, and Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences amongst others. His current H-index is 76 with over 24000 citations. He is the Chairperson of the membership selection committee (Bioscience sector) of the African Academy of Sciences.

Professor Okoh has won several national and international research grants including from the SAMRC, but he notes that the greatest impact to his research has been the SAMRC Microbial Water Quality Monitoring Centre which took effect on 1 April 2015. This EMU has been the most productive research entity in the University of Fort Hare since its inception, and it has been a major hub for skills and capacity development, especially amongst the previously disadvantaged demographic groups in the country, and for this he remains very grateful to the SAMRC.

Professor Penny Moore is the Director of Antibody Immunity Research Unit (AIRU) at the South African Medical Research Council. A Research Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, and the Academic Head of the Divisions of Immunology and Virology at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Prof. Penny Moore leads a multi-disciplinary team of more than 15 scientists and 10 postgraduate students who work largely in the fields of HIV and Covid-19 vaccine discovery, combining Virology, Immunology, Protein Biochemistry and Bioinformatics. Professor Moore has worked in the HIV vaccine field for more than 20 years and has made seminal contributions to understanding how broadly neutralising antibodies develop in HIV infection. Understanding the pathway to neutralising breadth has provided a template for HIV vaccine design strategies, many of which are now being tested in human clinical trials. More recently, with the emergence of COVID-19, Moore’s team adapted their skills and platforms to conduct research on SARS-CoV-2.  Professor Moore was globally recognised as a leader in defining and characterising variants of concern, and her lab published several high impact papers defining the humoral response to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination. More recently, the team has expanded their scope further to work on Influenza, Cytomegalovirus, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Adenoviruses and Ebola. In the past 20 years, Professor Moore has contributed towards more than 165 papers, focusing predominantly on antibodies and their interplay with evolving viruses, a result of extensive collaborations within South Africa and internationally. She has an H-factor of 44.

Moore has a very strong focus on mentorship and capacity development. She supervises several postgraduate students and post-doctoral fellows within her lab and across several other institutes, and contributes to teaching at her University and others. She serves on the advisory committees of national and African capacity development and training initiatives. Moore also serves on the Scientific advisory boards of several international virology institutes and research consortia in Europe, America and Australia.

In 2020 Moore received the National Research Foundation B1 rating, following a B3 rating in 2014. In 2018 she was awarded the South African Medical Research Council Silver Medal.

Professor Moore holds a PhD in Virology,from the Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, United Kingdom.

Moore serves as Director of the Antibody Immunity Research Unit (AIRU), an extramural unit of the SAMRC.  Penny first received direct funding from the SAMRC in 2014 though a SHIP Grant. She has subsequently received extensive funding for HIV and SARS-CoV-2 research, as have senior members of her team. This sustained SA MRC funding, along with extensive international funding, has supported capacity development within the AIRU team.

Professor Alan Christoffels is a Professor of Bioinformatics at the University of the Western Cape and the Director of the South African National Bioinformatics Institute based at the UWC campus. He also serves as a director at the SAMRC  Bioinformatics research unit as director.

His research fields and area of expertise are in Bioinformatics of infectious diseases, developing methods for analysing high throughput sequencing data such as Tuberculosis drug resistance tools. Prof Christoffels leads a global consortium of international universities and public health agencies to drive genomic epidemiology in the context of public health. His expertise in microbial genome analysis and pathogen data archiving has been instrumental in this regard.

He has received numerous awards, these include the UWC Innovation Award for social impact received in 2019. The Fulbright Visiting Scholar Award to Boston, USA in 2016, the National Research Foundation Hamilton Naki award in 2015, and the HUGO (Human Genome Organisation) Africa Prize for leadership in genetics research on the african continent.

During the COVID-19 pandemic he has been the advisor to the Africa CDC on pathogen genomics where his shaped the role out of a continental pathogen genomics surveillance network. Currently he is leading a continental data archive project on behalf of the Africa CDC.

Prof Christoffels holds a B2 rated scientist rating and he is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and the Royal Society of South Africa.

Prof Christoffels affiliation with the SAMRC goes back to 2010. He has participated in various national initiatives led by the SAMRC such as the Southern African Human Genome Project, the rollout of a BGI sequencing platform, and research capacity development and training programs where he has graduated nearly 50 postgraduate students.

Professor Cheryl Cohen is a Medical doctor who specialises in clinical microbiology, epidemiologist. She currently serves as the Head of the Centre for Respiratory Disease and Meningitis at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa.

Prof Cohen works closely with the National Department of Health to generate evidence that guides policy about the control and management of respiratory diseases. She led the establishment of a national surveillance programme for severe acute respiratory infections in South Africa in 2009. She leads a research team in the field of respiratory diseases with a focus on the burden of disease, risk groups and transmission, as well as assessments of the impact and effectiveness of interventions to reduce disease burden. During the COVID-19 epidemic in South Africa, Prof Cohen led the workstream for surveillance programmes and public reporting. She is a member of several national and international advisory committees and working groups that are mainly related to influenza and other respiratory viruses. She is a member of the board of the International Society for Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, the chair of the African Network for Influenza Surveillance and Epidemiology and a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee for COVID-19 vaccines. She has been the coordinator for the Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Module of the MSc in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of the Witwatersrand since 2006 and coordinator of the Epidemiology Module for the msc Vacinology since 2019.

She was the recipient of the South African Medical Research Council Silver Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Health Research. In 2022 her profile featured in Lancet Infectious Diseases—promoting evidence-based health policy . And then in 2020 she received a personal profile feature in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

She holds a MBBCh in Medicine from the University of the Witwatersrand, a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (with distinction) University of the Witwatersrand, MSc in Epidemiology (with distinction) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a PhD in Epidemiology

Prof Cohen received funding for a number of research projects from the SAMRC – this was particularly important during COVID-19 when there were mechanisms for rapid funding.

Professor Pascal Bessong trained as a virologist and holds the position of professor in Microbiology and Global Health at the University of Venda. Additionally, he serves as the Founding Chair of the HIV/AIDS & Global Health Research Programme at the same University and holds the role of Founding Director of the SAMRC-UNIVEN Antimicrobial Resistance and Global Health Research Unit. He is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Global Health Equity, University of Virginia, USA, and a Honorary Professor in the School of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal.

His fields of research and area of expertise are in Antimicrobial resistance; Infection and Child growth and development; and Global Health.

He has received numerous awards, including the Ellison Medical Foundation Postdoctoral Award, an SAMRC Extramural Unit award and a four-time awardee of Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence. He is an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, and a B-2 rated scientist of the National Research Foundation. He has successfully trained 20 doctoral and 35 Master of Science students.

He holds a BSc Honours in Microbiology, an MSc in Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, a PhD in Microbiology. Professor Bessong is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Medicine degree in Bioethics and Health Law at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Professor Bessong is the Founding Director of the SAMRC-UNIVEN Antimicrobial Resistance and Global Health Research Unit. He leads a team of national and international investigators seeking solutions to mitigate the acquisition and transmission of antimicrobial resistance in communities of low socio-economic status.

Professor Wendy Stevens is a specialist pathologist who has contributed significantly to the  diagnosis and monitoring of HIV and TB including capacity development in this area . Her research priorities are largely in haematological malignancies, HIV and TB for over 25 years.

Prof Steven has been responsible for the roll out of affordable CD4, viral load, EID and HIV drug resistance programs in South Africa and at  sixty centers in sub-Saharan Africa. This portfolio includes the national molecular TB testing to 207 sites. These programs have been extended to vulnerable populations such as the Correctional Services and peri-mining communities. Her success is due to the development of a strong research, operations and translational laboratory medicine and multi-disciplinary implementation team to support national disease priorities. This has included many innovations to address weaknesses in the pathology value chain to strive towards sustainable laboratory capacity in Africa. In early 2020 she catapulted her teams focus towards COVID-19 activities and leveraged off their years’ experience in laboratory medicine to respond to necessary diagnostics for COVID-19. In October 2022, Prof Steven, as the Executive Director, founded the Wits Diagnostic Innovation Hub (DIH), at the University of the Witwatersrand. Wits DIH is managed as a syndicate under Wits Health Consortium. The primary objective of Wits DIH is to continue providing affordable and accessible innovative diagnostics to those who need it the most – expanding the diagnostic portfolio to include non-communicable diseases and molecular oncology.

Her research efforts since qualification have focussed largely on the HIV research arena over a period of 27 years. This can be supported by numerous peer reviewed publications and conference presentations. With research activities that have included the expansion of early infant diagnosis of HIV, affordable HIV viral load, CD4 and investigation of HIV drug resistance. In 2006, Prof Stevens received an award from the National Department of Science and Technology for her contribution to the development of laboratory capacity in Southern Africa. She has been an advisor to and an investigator for the following HIV research networks: the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) (New York), the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) (NIH funded, Seattle), the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) (NIH funded), the Microbicide Development Program (UK based funding) and the ACTG Pharmacology Scientific Committee, amongst others.

In addition, Prof Stevens has had investigator status for several international grants funded projects including the CIPRA project in collaboration with Professor McIntyre and team at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). Other funders of her research have more recently included: the Netherlands AIDS fund, Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada Global Fund, PEPFAR, CDC, USAID, and the MRC. She has served as a consultant for the World Health Organization (Geneva), CDC (Atlanta) and NIH (Bethesda, USA) on several different working groups. She has also served on review committees for UNITAID (WHO), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges. Since November 2010, she took the role and has been appointed Head of National Priority Programs at the National Health Laboratory Service focusing on laboratory efforts related to priority diseases that currently HIV, TB, and Cervical Cancer. Prof Stevens current portfolio includes options for implementation at scale through the National Priority Programme and optimising the clinic-laboratory chain through innovations for Africa by means of the African Innovation Network.

During the more recent COVID-19 outbreak, her team was responsible for National assay validation; molecular, serology and antigen/antibody-based testing. As the Executive Director and founder of the newly established Wits Diagnostic Innovation Hub (Wits DIH) at the University of the Witwatersrand, she together with her team aim to accelerate Africa’s access to affordable innovative diagnostic technologies, by providing a platform for innovators and suppliers to evaluate and validate these technologies, as well as provide guidance to regulatory and implementation frameworks within a real-world setting.

Professor Frank Brombacher is a Professor at University of Cape Town (UCT) and the Scientific Coordinator & Group leader for Immunology and Infectious Diseases.

His field of research and area of expertise are in Immunology of Infectious Diseases in Africa, Tuberculosis, Schistosomiasis and Leishmaniasis.

Prof Brombachers recent awards include Host-Directed Drug Therapy (Preclinical & Clinical), Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT) in Japan and Host-directing drug targeting against Tuberculosis.

He holds a PhD. Rerum Naturalum in Immunology that was supervised by Nobel Laureate Prof. Dr. G. Köhler at the Max-Planck-Institute für Immunology, Freiburg, Germany. His PhD Thesis was titled Transgenic mice with anti-thymocyte specific immunoglobulin genes. Between 1980 and 1986 he completed a Diploma in Molecular Biology (Supervised by Prof. B. Rak), University in Freiburg, Germany.

Prof. Brombacher's affiliation with the SAMRC entails serving as the Director of the Immunology of Infectious Diseases Research Unit.

Professor Estelle Victoria Lambert is an Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Scholar.  Part of the Research Centre for Health through Physical Activity, Lifestyle and Sport (HPALS) and Division of Physiological Sciences in the Department of Human Biology at the Faculty of Health Sciences in the University of Cape Town.

She is also an adjunct Professor at the School of Health and Medical Sciences in the Faculty of Health, Engineering & Sciences at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia.

Professor Lambert is the former Director of the UCT- accredited Research Centre for Health through Physical Activity, Lifestyle and Sport (HPALS), which she led from its inception in 2018 until 2023.  She is a National Research Foundation (NRF) B1 rated scientist. Her research concerning physical inactivity and obesity includes work on the prevalence, burden of disease, correlates, determinants and ecological factors associated with these risk factors across the life-course (from the intra-uterine environment to adolescence to older adults and most recently, involving community, socio-environmental and behaviour change interventions.  The focus of her research has been primarily in low- and middle-income countries.  and more recently, on the nexus between physical activity insecurity, food insecurity, their environmental and social determinants and health equity.

She has been internationally recognised for her contributions in the fields of physical activity, obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in LMICs, resulting in her inclusion as an expert consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO) on a variety of topics including physical activity and health since 1998. In 2016, she served on a team tasked with developing the Global Action Plan for Physical Activity (GAPPA) specifically incorporating the physical activity agenda into the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In 2019, she was selected to be on the WHO Guidelines Development Group to formulate the 2020 Global Recommendations for Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour  Also in 2019, she was invited to be an expert consultant for the Global Regulatory & Fiscal Capacity Building Programme Promoting Healthy Diets and Physical Activity.

Prof Lambert is currently serving on the WHO Guidelines Development Group for Management of infants and children at high risk (excessive adiposity) and children with obesity for improved health, functioning and reduced disability: a primary health care approach.  She was co-founder and chair of the African Physical Activity Network, from 2007 until 2013, and has been the lead or co-lead of the Healthy Active Kids South Africa Report Card evidence-based advocacy initiative ince 2007.   She has been in-country co-principal investigator on the NIH-funded Modeling the Epidemiological Transition study (METS), a 5-country, longitudinal cohort, documenting relationships between PA and obesity, in persons of the African diaspora. She is also an in-country co-PI on the NIHR-funded Global Diet and Activity Research Network (GDARSpaces), in collaboration with the MRC Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge University, and colleagues from Kenya, Cameroon, Jamaica, Nigeria and Brazil.

During her career, she  has supervised or co-supervised 20 PhD students  and 11 MSc/MPhil students, and is currently co-supervising 3 PhD and 1 MSc students. She is an author or co-author on over 360 peer-reviewed publications, with an H-index of 70, and her work has been cited over 35500 times. A fellow of the University of Cape Town since 2009.,  she has also been on the Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher list 4 times, beginning in 2020 (Cross-discipline) and again from 2021 -2023 (Social Sciences).  This places her in the top 1% of researchers in her field.  There are only 10 South African researchers who have received this distinction over this time period.

In 1980 she obtained her BA in Physical Education from Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina in the United States of America. In 1983 an MA in Exercise Physiology from the University of South Carolina, USA. And then in 1993 a PhD in Physiology from the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town.

Emeritus Professor Lambert was an integral part of the SAMRC Unit for Bioenergetics of Exercise Research Unit under Professor Tim Noakes (BERU). This Unit then evolved into the SAMRC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine (ESSM), also under Professor Noakes, which together ran for 25 years (1989-2014).    Furthermore, she worked with the MRC Chronic Diseases of Lifestyle Unit to ensure that physical activity became part of South African adult NCD surveillance in the first SADHS in 2003.

During COVID-19, Lambert spearheaded an initiative, along with 40 colleagues from 9 African countries, including those from the SAMRC, and together they developed 4 policy briefs for promoting and implementing physical activity in the public sector, for children, for persons living with disability and in school sport, during COVID and beyond.

More recently, Professor Lambert has been a collaborator on a project called FoodSAMSA, a three-year project that aims to address malnutrition in all its forms, including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, unhealthy diets and obesity, by assessing its determinants and by exploring interventions at the macro (policy), the meso (community) and the micro (interpersonal) level. This project is in conjunction with SAMRC, UWC School of Public Health, UCT Chronic Disease Initiative in Africa and the Ludwig- Maximillian University in Munich in Germany.

Emeritus Professor Lambert continues to be a champion for physical activity and health, environmental and social justice, using citizen science as a tool for both gathering evidence and promoting advocacy.

Role: Former Chief Financial Officer, South African Medical Research Council

Work: Responsible for the management of procurement, risk management, information technology and

operations divisions

Inspiration: Under his leadership the SAMRC doubling of annual funding to approximately R1.1bn by 2019/20 and consecutive clean audits as certified by the Auditor General. The SAMRC also received a Certificate of Excellence award in Public Finance Management from the SA Institute of Chartered Accountants in 2016/17