Liesl Zühlke

Professor Zühlke is a paediatric cardiologist and Vice-President of the South African Medical Research Council. She was the 2018 recipient of the MRC/Dfid African Research Leader Award, the Winner of the NRF award for Social Impact in Research, the Metrodora Award for Public Health and Research in Emerging economies and the UCT Vice-Chancellors Alan Pfifer Award for research. She was recently inducted into the prestigious UCT College of Fellows, UCT’s highest academic honour and is a Member of the South African Academy of Sciences (MAssaf). She has achieved the highest leadership positions within cardiology in South Africa; President of the Paediatric Cardiac Society of South Africa, President of the South African Heart Association and currently chair of both the Paediatric and Rheumatic Heart Disease Taskforces in the Pan-African Society of Cardiology. Internationally she serves as the President of Reach (Rheumatic Heart Disease, Evidence, Advocacy, Communication and Hope), a board member of the World Heart Federation and NCDA- Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance-, International scientific advisory board of Children's Heart Link and Global ARCH and an executive member of SAVAC (Strep A Vaccine Global Consortium). As the only women Full Professor of Paediatric Cardiology in the country, she is an active and vociferous advocate for the advancement and empowerment of equity and women in medicine: including being on the Lancet Commission for Women in Cardiovascular Disease.