Professor Timothy Pennel is the Head of Division and Chris Barnard Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Cape Town. His area of expertise focuses on heart and lung failure and vascular graft tissue engineering. His laboratory research concentrates on the mechanism of vascular graft healing in high-porosity conduits, electrospun degradable polymers and decellularized xenografts. His vision is to re-establish University Hospitals as centres of excellence for quaternary based care whilst training emerging Cardiothoracic surgeons as clinicians and researchers.