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) – STRong Heart and Reach, 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 an NRF B1-rated researcher (2023-2028) with a Google Scholar h-index of 64 and an i10-index of 140. As of February 2026, she had accumulated more than 90,944 citations, including 38 citation classics (publications cited more than 100 times), of which 10 have been cited more than 1,000 times, and has authored over 230 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and books.
She is recognised as one of the world's leading scholars in rheumatic heart disease research and is ranked by SciVal among the top 5% of research achievers at the University of Cape Town in her field. She has received numerous national and international honours, including the NRF Award for Social Accountability in Research, the UCT Vice-Chancellor's Alan Pifer Award, the Metrodora Award for Public Health Leadership in Science and Medicine in Emerging Economies, and the 2026 L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science International Award for Africa and the Arab States. In 2026, she was appointed as the first Honorary Professor linked to the Nelson Mandela University Medical School, within the Department of Public Health, and was also appointed to the National Health Research Committee (NHRC), a key advisory body that guides South Africa's national health research agenda.
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.