Prof Lebo Gafane-Matemane and Prof Lusilda Schutte of the North-West University (NWU) were recently recognised by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) when they each received a bronze award during the SAMRC’s 9th Scientific Merit Awards gala dinner held in Cape Town on 9 March.
The bronze medals are awarded to scientists who have recently entered the research arena, with at least five years post-PhD experience. While this award is not tied to chronological age, the condition for this award is that researchers should preferably be under the age of 50 years.
Prof Gafane-Matemane obtained her PhD in physiology from the NWU in 2017 and is currently an associate professor of physiology in the Hypertension in Africa Research Team in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Her research focus is on hypertension in populations of African ancestry.
She credits this achievement to her colleagues, students, and mentors, who have played a significant role in her contributions to hypertension research.
“For me, this award serves as motivation to pursue research that will not only contribute to understanding the pathophysiology of hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases, but also to seeing the knowledge applied to improve preventative and treatment strategies,” adds Prof Gafane-Matemane.
Prof Schutte is an associate professor at the Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Health Research and a registered and practicing clinical psychologist.
Building on a bachelor’s degree with mathematics, statistics, and psychology as majors, she holds a PhD in psychology from the NWU and master’s degrees in both clinical psychology and statistics.
More about the SAMRC Scientific Merit Awards
The SAMRC strongly supports excellence in health research and has established this set of medal awards to recognise world-class science.
These awards are among the most prestigious in the country and are conferred upon individual researchers who have published work that has made ground-breaking contributions, providing impactful world-class science and health research that is aimed at advancing the lives of South Africans.
Awardees in all categories are identified through an open public nomination process and later adjudicated by the SAMRC Awards Nominations Committee.
