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7th Scientific Merit Awards

Silver Awards

Prof Claire Hoving is a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellow in Public Health and Tropical Medicine and a member of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM), South Africa and is also an Associate Professor within the Division of Immunology, Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town, South Africa. As an NRF Y-rating African and Immunologist, her ambition is to address neglected infectious diseases prevalent on this continent while empowering local scientists, especially women. Her background is in understanding the host immune response during infections prevalent in Africa such as parasites, like those causing bilharzia and Leishmaniasis and bacteria, like Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The focus of her newly established research group is on HIV-related fungal infection. Serious fungal infections continue to devastate people living with HIV and remain a leading cause of infectious-related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, second only to tuberculosis. Considering the urgent need for capacity in this field, her research focuses on HIV-related fungal infection. With the increase of diseases rendering patients immunocompromised such as HIV/AIDS, the incidence of opportunistic fungal infection is increasing with detrimental effects. Therefore, the current major focus is understanding the immune response to Pneumocystis jirovecii, a common cause of pneumonia and death in patients with HIV/AIDS in Africa and which is estimated to kill over 250 000 worldwide every year.

She is a recipient of the following awards:

  1. Carnegie Corporation: Developing Emerging Academic Leaders award
  2. NRF Competitive support for unrated researchers      
  3. NRF Research Career Advancement award   
  4. Early Career Fellowship International CIDRI-Wellcome Trust

She says her potential as an independent scientist together with the opportunity to invest in medical mycology research in South Africa was recognized by the SAMRC through the SAMRC SIR award, adding that it marked her transition and she now has her own research team focused on this highly neglected area of research, particularly in Africa.

A Cardiologist by profession, Prof Mpiko Ntsekhe wears many hats at different times – if he is not Chair of Cardiology at the University of Cape Town, he is Head of Cardiology Services at the Groote Schuur Hospital or Director at the Mayosi Research Collaborative. He also holds a position of Vice President of the South African Heart Association, Secretary General of the South-Pan African Society of Cardiology and Chair of the South African Heart Registries (SHARE). His current areas of active research include Pericardial Disease with focus on Tuberculous Pericarditis; HIV associated Cardiovascular Disease; Therapeutic Interventions for Rheumatic Heart Disease; Novel therapeutics for Heart Failure; Strategies for the management of Acute and Chronic Ischemic Heart Disease and Dilated Cardiomyopathy. As a National Research Foundation (NRF) Rated Researcher, Prof Ntsekhe has received numerous awards in recognition of his outstanding research work. These include but not limited to: the Don Kennedy Emerging Researcher Award in 2004; the Trout CaNNeCTIN Research Fellowship Award- McMaster University in 2006; Edith Sorrel Clinical Research Fellowship from 2009 to 2011; Thuthuka NRF Research Fellowship Award in 2012; Fellow of American College of Cardiology in 2013; Member of Academy of Science of South Africa (MASSAf); Member of Sigma Xi- 2020. Prof Ntsekhe has a well-established publication track record including several book chapters, numerous peer reviewed articles in high impact journals such as Circulation, Nature Cardiology Reviews and the European Heart Journal. He is a regular reviewer for a number of prestigious journals also serves as an editoral board member for a few. He is a frequent speaker at local and international congresses and society meetings.

Dr Stephanus Malherbe is the Chief Medical Officer at the Stellenbosch University Biomedical Research Institute Clinical Team. As a Clinical Researcher, his fields of research and areas of expertise are around Tuberculosis Diagnostics, Tuberculosis treatment and response, Automated image analysis, Study design and Tuberculosis immunology. His pioneering work titled "Persisting positron emission tomography lesion activity and Mycobacterium tuberculosis mRNA after tuberculosis cure" was published in Nature Medicine in 2016. This innovative research formed the basis for his PhD dissertation titled "Evaluating the treatment response of pulmonary tuberculosis by 18F-FDG PET/CT scans" which he defended successfully at the end of 2016. He played a major part in the clinical studies that lead to the discovery of host transcriptomic protein signatures, which have been incorporated in point-of-care devices to use as screening tools for TB disease.  If validated, would greatly streamline testing and treatment initiation. In 2017 he received the HD Brede Award for the best Tuberculosis related publication by post-graduate student in the Health Sciences.de Leon award for lecturers and the following year, he was the Finalist in clinical research excellence: South African Clinical Research Society. In 2019, he won the Young Investigator Prize, The Union (The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease). Dr Malherbe has been affiliated with the South African Medical Research Council’s Centre for Tuberculosis Research since 2013. He also received support from the SAMRC to complete his PhD, in the form of a scholarship from the Clinician Researcher Program from 2014 until 2016.

 

Gold Awards

Prof Graeme Meintjes is an adult Infectious Diseases Physician and the Second Chair and Deputy Head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He holds the DSI/NRF SARChI Chair in Poverty-related Infections and is a member of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine. He also leads the clinical platform of the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa at UCT. Together with his research group, Prof  Meintjes’ focuses on the diagnosis, prevention, treatment and immunopathogenesis of conditions that affect patients with advanced HIV disease in Africa, in particular: HIV-associated tuberculosis, HIV-associated cryptococcal meningitis, immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS), complications of antiretroviral therapy and drug-resistant tuberculosis. Under his leadership, the group conducts clinical trials and observational cohort studies, nesting within these translational immunology studies aimed at improving understanding of disease pathogenesis – these trials have addressed critical questions relevant to management of advanced HIV in programmatic settings. They also undertake evaluation of novel diagnostics for HIV-associated tuberculosis, most recently the urine SILVAMP TB-LAM assay in collaboration with the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND). An NRF B1 rated scientist, Prof Meitjies is recognised as one of the leading researchers on the topic of the IRIS internationally, his main focus being tuberculosis-associated IRIS. His group has done ground-breaking research on this frequent complication of HIV treatment.  As a Principal Investigator, he led the only 2 randomised-controlled trials which demonstrated that prednisone was safe and effective as prophylaxis for TB-IRIS in high risk TB patients starting ART – to add the cherry on top, the findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018 and have influenced international clinical practice. Due to his notable experience and extensive research, he is no stranger to the science red carpet – he has won several prestigious awards – in 2013 alone, he won the Medical Research Council of South Africa Young Scientist Award and the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) award for rising star African scientist. In 2014/15 he was a finalist for the National Science and Technology Forum TW Kambule Award. He was elected Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and Fellow of the University of Cape Town in 2015 and 2017 respectively.

Of his many titles, Prof Janusz T. Paweska is the Head of the Centre for Emerging, Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Diseases of the National Health Laboratory Service.  He is also an Associate Professor (Reader) at the University of Witwatersrand, School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences. As a veterinarian who specialized in medical and veterinary virology and epidemiology, he’s got expertise in the field of emerging and re-merging zoonotic pathogens of epidemic-prone potential, including highly specialized diagnostics, aiding patient management and outbreak control measures, epidemiological studies, biosurveillance of zoonoses of public health importance. In 2008, he led the discovery of a new Old-World arenavirus (named by him Lujo) during a highly fatal nosocomial outbreak in Johannesburg. First recognition of yellow fever outbreak in Angola in 2015, prompted the implementation of massive vaccination in this country, thus contributing to its control. He is also responsible for managing the most advanced biocontainment infrastructure in the country and in Africa, building capacity for diagnostics, research and biosecurity of high-consequence pathogens, including the recently emerged severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). He led the South African mobile laboratory response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014-2016 - for weeks during Ebola crisis in Freetown this was the only diagnostic capacity available, and it was crucial not only for rapid diagnosis and isolation of Ebola cases, but also for contact tracing, patient management and safe burials. It was the largest SA outbreak response on a foreign soil and a part of international efforts in bringing the Ebola outbreak under control. In 2009 he was conferred a Professorship Title (in Veterinary Science) by the President of the Republic of Poland - Polish Central Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles. Awarded a statuette of “Sapere Auso” as an outstanding alumnus for professional achievements, 2011 - Rector of Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wroclaw, Poland. Gold medal for NRF rated researcher, 2013: award from Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand. He is also a recipient of the Award from the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences University of the Witwatersrand in 2014 in recognition for his dedication and achievement in research. He won the first prize of the British Medical Association for Medical Book Awards, 2015 - contribution of two chapters. Awarded Honour Medal of Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 2015.

Karen Sliwa is a Cardiologist, Professor and Director at the Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Research in Africa (HICRA) at the University of Cape Town which – formerly known as the MRC Interuniversity Cape Heart Group (2000 – 2010) and funded by the MRC. She is also Director of the newly established Cape Heart Institute and lead several research groups. She is vastly experienced in developing, designing and leading cardiovascular disease (CVD) studies in various healthcare environments in Africa and has devised innovative strategies to raise funds through numerous sources - at a time when very limited funding was available for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) research. Her seminal Heart of Soweto Study, reporting on the prevalence, presentation and management of cardiac disease in an urban African population (8000 patients), published in the Lancet in 2008, led to more than 25 publications describing, e.g. the impact of HIV/AIDS on CVD, the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease diagnosed in adulthood, and the spectrum of conditions leading to heart failure, amongst others. Under the umbrella of the ‘Heart of Africa Studies’, cardiovascular population studies have been expanded to other African countries, she has designed and implemented several innovative research programs and have leveraged funding for these projects. All cohort studies incorporate biological variables interlinked with socio-demographic parameters and the impact on health outcomes.  She leads a large international registry on peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), funded by the European Cardiac Society (EORP PPCM) and known for her research in the area of cardiac disease in the peripartum period, which has led to more than 20 publications in that field and many roles and memberships in a number of prestigious journals including the Lancet, the European Heart Journal, Nature Review Cardiology and European Journal Heart Failure.  Not only does her work speak for itself, she has awards and accolades to back it up – in 2019 she was awarded the Geoffrey Rose Award from the European Society of Cardiology for Population Studies and in 2017 she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University Diderot-Sorbonne, Paris, France (this is the highest distinction awarded by French Universities as recognition for Research and Global Engagement, which is awarded by the French University Research Board and approved by the French Ministry of Foreign affairs. She also has the German Cardiac Society Paul Morawitz Award under her name for Exceptional Cardiovascular Research (this distinguished award is given once per annum for exceptional research in cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery in Germany, Austria and Switzerland). Fellowships from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) are also in the bag.

Michele Ramsay is Professor of Human Genetics at Wits University’s School of Pathology and occupies the position of Director at the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience (Wits University) from 2014 to present.

Her research interests include:

  • African population genetic diversity and the role of genetic variants in diseases exacerbated by adverse lifestyle choices, including obesity, diabetes, hypertension and stroke.
  • African population genetics and how that informs our understanding of migration, admixture and adaptation
  • Precision medicine approaches in an African context (Developing genetic assays for monogenic traits and pharmacogenomic variants)
  • The role of polygenic risk scores for complex diseases and trans-ethnic transferability of models

Prof Ramsay is a recipient of the 2020 NSTF-South32 Lifetime Achievement Award. She was named winner of the 2019 DSI Distinguished Woman Researcher and in the same year she was invited to serve on International Commission on the Clinical Use of Human Germline Genome Editing. Over three decades she has held several SAMRC research grants, attended workshops and worked with numerous researchers from the organisation. The SAMRC also funded her post-doctoral fellowship In London between 1987 and 1989. She is currently PI of the SAMRC - Pharmacogenomics in Precision Medicine research grant for the project: Exploratory framework for a pharmacogenomics guided treatment algorithm for high blood pressure in black Africans.

Platinum Awards

Heather Zar is Professor and Chair within the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at Red Cross Children’s Hospital and also Director of the South African Medical Research Council’s Unit on Child & Adolescent Health, one of the organisation’s extramural research units which is housed at the University of Cape Town, since 2015. Her work, focused on childhood pneumonia, tuberculosis, asthma and HIV-associated disease has had global impact on strategies for diagnosis, prevention and treatment.  She’s established a novel African birth cohort study, the Drakenstein Child Health study to investigate the early life determinants of child health. An NRF-A1 rated scientist, she’s developed a strong clinical translational research program, establishing several clinical research sites, building a core clinical research facility, attracting substantial funding from international grant agencies and mentoring several postgraduate students. A key advocate for child health in Africa and globally, she’s served as President of the Pan African Thoracic Society, past president of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies, and in an advisory capacity to the World Health Organisation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Prof Zar has many accolades under her name – to mention a few: she received the World Lung Health award from the American Thoracic Society in 2014, the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Laureate for Africa/Arabia in 2018 and the President’s Award from the International Congress in Pediatric Pulmonology in 2019 for a “Lifetime of seminal contributions that will impact generations to come and for embodying a role model for the paediatric pulmonary community worldwide”. She has and continues to mentor many postgraduate students (PhD, post-docs) most of whom are funded by the SAMRC its Research Capacity Development.

Linda-Gail Bekker is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Cape Town and holds the positions of Chief Research Officer at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation and the Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre. Prof Bekker is an Infectious Disease Specialist with a keen interest in HIV, tuberculosis and related diseases with a focus in Adolescent Health, Women’s Health and IV Prevention. Her doctoral work focused on the host response to tuberculosis both with and in the absence of HIV co-infection. Subsequently, her research interests have expanded to include programmatic and Health Service research around antiretroviral roll-out and TB integration, prevention of HIV in women, youth and men who have sex with men. She is passionate about community development and engagement - some of her projects have included community-based HIV treatment, peer-led community education, mobile health services (Tutu testers) to the neediest populations. Since the advent of Covid-19, Prof Bekker has been in the frontline of the fight against the pandemic which saw her being involved in many vaccine trials including the Johnson & Johnson as Co-Principal Investigator. The Vaccine proved to offer 57% protection against moderate to severe Covid-19 infections in South Africa and is currently in Phase 1 of the rollout.  In 2014 she received the UCT Alan Pifer Research Award which she shared with Prof Robin Wood given in recognition of outstanding welfare-related research. In the same year, she received the UCT Ralph Kirsch Golden Pen Award which is presented to authors of an SAMJ paper that has garnered the most citations over two years following publication. Other accolades include:
  1. 2016: Fellowship in Art and Science of Medicine Award for Medicine, South African Medical Association Merit Award.
  2. 2018: ASSAF “Science for Society” Gold Medal Award
  3. Desmond Tutu Award for HIV Prevention and Human Rights presented at the HIVR4P Conference 2018
  4. 2020: Accepted to ASSAF as a fellow.
  5. 2020: Fellow, College of Fellows, University of Cape Town

 

Presidents Award

Prof Volmink is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences and Professor in the Department of Global Health at Stellenbosch University. His areas of expertise are Clinical epidemiology and Evidence-based medicine, with special contributions during a career extending over more than three decades including:
  • Developing and using rigorous methods to evaluate health care interventions relevant for addressing health problems affecting people living in low- and middle-income countries
  • Promoting evidence-based decision making at local, national and global levels, through knowledge translation efforts
  • Advocacy to address health and social inequalities
  • Building research capacity through training and mentorship.

His extensive research work has earned him countless accolades including being an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCP (Edin.) He has received the Leverhulme Medal for Distinguished Contribution from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK.

Other recognitions include:

  • Award for contributions to Evidence-based Health Care in Africa from the SAMRC.
  • Honorary doctorate conferred in February 2021 by KU Leuven, Belgium “in recognition of his work to promote human dignity and his contribution to science and practice to improve health and well-being”.
  • Stellenbosch University has recognized his contributions with a Rectors Award for General Performance (three times – 2013, 2014 and 2015) and most recently, in 2020, with a lifetime Chancellor’s Award for sustained excellent career performance.

Prof Volmink has a long history of association with the SAMRC dating back to 1990 when he was appointed as Specialist Scientist at the then Centre for Epidemiological Research in Southern Africa (CERSA).  After completing his DPhil in Oxford, he was invited by the SAMRC to take up the role of Founding Director of the South African Cochrane Centre (now Cochrane SA). He achieved the rank of Chief Specialist Scientist in 1998.  Over the course of more than two decades (either in a full-time or part-time capacity) he continued to contribute to building and guiding the Cochrane SA team. The Unit is, today, widely respected for the impact of its research and important contributions to evidence-based healthcare.

Mike Sathekge is Professor and Head of Nuclear Medicine Department at the University of Pretoria and Steve Biko Academic Hospital. He also holds the position of CEO/Head of the Main Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure (NuMeRI). An internationally acclaimed researcher, Prof Sathekge has a strong research focus in areas of Theranostics, Targeted Radionuclide Therapy, New Radiopharmaceuticals, Infection Imaging, PET/CT. As a result, he has won various prestigious awards for his research in the field of nuclear medicine and has received a B rating from the National Research Foundation (NRF). His numerous publications have had a significant impact in the field of nuclear medicine, both locally and abroad. He is the former Board Chairperson of the South African Medical Research Council for six years (2014-2019) and immediate past President of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa. He is a Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa: MASSAf and winner of the Research Excellence Award at the inaugural South African Health Excellence Awards. Prof Sathekge was the First winner of the late Ralph Kirsch Golden Pen Award and a recipient of the Fellowship in Art & Science of Medicine Award - SAMA award. He was the winner of the DSI award to host the R300 million Main Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure (NuMeRI) Facility in South Africa, which he is now CEO of. On the international front, he is the Editor-in-Chief of “Seminars in Nuclear Medicine”, the most important teaching review journal in nuclear medicine. Prof Sathekge has won several international best presentation awards on radionuclide therapy in prostate cancer (USA, EU, Brazil, India, China). He is the President-elect of the World Association of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Therapy (WARMTH). 

7th Scientific Merit Awards
7th Scientific Merit Awards
View the Award Winners