North-West University academic and researcher Prof Lebo Gafane-Matemane recently attended the 14th HOPE Meeting with Nobel Laureates from 27 February to 3 March 2023 in Tsukuba City, Japan.

She was nominated by the National Research Foundation (NRF), together with Dr Ncediwe Ndube-Tsolekile from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

The HOPE meetings have been organised by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) since 2008, aiming to advance science and technology in the Asia-Pacific and Africa region.

This year’s meeting included participants from South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, China, India, Turkey, Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Israel and Vietnam.

Prof Gafane-Matemane says she had the opportunity to present her research on cardiovascular risk in young South Africans.

“The meeting’s comprehensive programme also offered many opportunities to engage with doctoral students and young researchers selected from the specific countries. I was also able to participate in interdisciplinary discussions with Nobel Laureates and other distinguished scientists,” she adds

“The group presentations provided a great opportunity to discuss shared problems in the Asia-Pacific and Africa regions. These problems can be tackled by aligning research and other efforts to the Sustainable Development Goals, along with regional and global collaboration,” says Prof Gafane-Matemane.

Prof Gafane-Matemane was part of the group that visited the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine, which showcased its world-class research on the physiology of sleep. She says this was of particular interest to her because of the link between neurophysiology and hypertension.

At the end of the meeting, she received a JSPS HOPE Fellow certificate.

Prof Gafane-Matemane says she plans to share the knowledge she obtained from the meeting with the Hypertension in Africa Research team, and especially postgraduate students and young researchers.

“I hope that in future more PhD students and early career researchers from the NWU will have the opportunity to attend the HOPE meetings.”

About Prof Gafane-Matemane

Prof Gafane-Matemane is an NRF Y-rated researcher and an associate professor of physiology at one of the NWU’s centres of excellence, Hypertension in Africa Research Team (HART).

Prof Gafane-Matemane