Professor Liesl Zühlke is Vice President of the South African Medical Research Council and a paediatric cardiologist at Red Cross Children’s Hospital and UCT. A global leader in rheumatic and congenital heart disease, her work spans clinical care, implementation science, genetics, and health systems strengthening. She is committed to advancing equity, empowering women in medicine, and shaping a resilient, inclusive research ecosystem across Africa.

She has over 250 publications, conference proceedings and book chapters, an her h-index of 60 , she has been cited over 88 000 times and was the 2018 recipient of the MRC/Dfid African Research Leader Award, the Winner of the NRF award for Social Impact in Research, the International Metrodora Award for Public Health and Research 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, inducted in 2024 into the The World Academy of Scicence, a Member of the South African Academy of Sciences (MASSAf) and is NRF-B1 rated.