Professor Liesl Zühlke is the Vice-President of the South African Medical Research Council - Extramural Research and Internal portfolio (ER-IP), a paediatric cardiologist in the Division of Paediatric Cardiology at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and the director of the Children’s Heart Disease Research Unit at the University of Cape Town (UCT), which focuses on family-centred research into Children’s Heart Diseases of relevance in Africa. Her research projects span Congenital and Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD), HIV in adolescents, Adults with Congenital Heart Disease and cardiac disease in women of childbearing age.
In addition to her medical degrees, Liesl holds an MPH in clinical research methods and PhD both from UCT, an MSc in Health Economics, Outcomes and Management of Cardiovascular Sciences from the London School of Economics and is a fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA), Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC) and Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC).
She is B1 NRF rated researcher (2023-2028), her Google Scholar h-index is 64, i10 index is 140. She has over 90 944 citations including 38 citation classics (over 100 citations, 10 with over 1000 citations), over 230 peer reviewed publications, book chapter and books (as of Feb 2026), is designated as one of the top three international scholars in rheumatic heart disease research and is listed on SciVal as within the top 5% of research achievers at UCT in her field. She is a recipient of national and international awards such as the NRF award for social accountability in research, the UCT Vice-Chancellor Alan Pfifer award and the Metrodora award for emerging economies.
Prof Zühlke is a past-president of the South African Heart Association, past-president of the Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa, and previous chair and co-chair of the PASCAR PANPACH (Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology) and RHD Task Forces respectively. Internationally she serves as President of Reach (Rheumatic Heart Disease, Evidence, Advocacy, Communication and Hope), previous board member of the World Heart Federation, Non-communicable disease alliance, a medical advisory committee member of Children's Heart Link, an international advisory committee member of Global ARCH as well as an executive member of SAVAC, the global Strep A vaccine consortium. She is the current Vice-President South of the Pan African Society of Cardiology.
Liesl is passionate about the prioritisation of women and children in the Global health agenda, both as co-creators and recipients of efforts to improve the lives of women and children across the world.