Leading vaccinologist Professor Shabir Madhi received the Lifetime Award from South Africa’s prestigious ‘Science Oscars’ held by the National Science and Technology Foundation. He received the honour for his leadership in research on vaccines against life-threatening diseases in Africa and globally, and he has been at the cutting edge of research in this area since 1997.
As well as being the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at Wits, Prof Madhi is also the director of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit (Wits-VIDA); and is co-director of African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise, Wits. During the COVID pandemic he became one of the most-cited expert by the media as the public looked to the healthcare sector for advice and guidance during this crisis.
A number of awards also went to those in the field of healthcare or who contributed to healthcare, an area especially marked by SA’s response to the COVID pandemic.
CEO of SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA), Dr Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela, received the Management Award for successfully leading the authorisation of a number of COVID diagnostic tests, vaccines and therapies during the COVID.
The Network for Genomics Surveillance (NGS-SA) in SA received the Data for Research award for NGS-SA, which generated of genomic surveillance data of SARS-CoV-2 aimed at informing SA’s public health response to this virus. It was represnted by its co-founders, Dr Jinal Bhiman, Scientific Lead for Global Immunology and Immune Sequencing for Epidemic Response South Africa (GIISER-SA); and Professor Tulio de Oliveira, SU.
Other recipients in the field of healthcare included Dr Wynand Goosen, who received an Emerging Researcher aware for leadership of research in SA on the surveillance of zoonotic TB in domestic cattle and wild animals as potential infection sources in susceptible people in rural areas.
