Emeritus Professor Valerie Mizrahi
Valerie Mizrahi, FRS, is Professor Emerita, Senior Scholar and director of the Molecular Mycobacteriology Research Unit in the Department of Pathology at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where she also serves as a Research Specialist in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, providing support for research development.
Valerie was born and raised in Zimbabwe. She obtained her BSc, BSc (Hons) and PhD degrees from UCT. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Penn State University, she worked at SmithKline & French in the USA before returning to South Africa to establish a research unit at the South African Institute of Medical Research. She served as founding co-director of the Department of Science & Innovation/ National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence for Biomedical TB Research from 2004-2023 and directed an extramural research unit of the South African Medical Research Council from 2000-2021. She was based at the University of the Witwatersrand and National Health Laboratory Service in Johannesburg for 22 years before moving to UCT in 2011 where she served the professorial director of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) until 2023. She is a former International Research Scholar and Senior International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (USA). As director of the IDM, Valerie led its growth and advancement to become the largest cross-Faculty postgraduate research institute at UCT and leading centre of research excellence in Africa renowned for its research and training programmes in tuberculosis, HIV, HIV-associated tuberculosis, and other diseases prevalent in Africa.
Recognised by her peers as a global leader in TB research, Valerie has held an “A” rating from the National Research Foundation of South Africa since 2009. She has published more than 185 original research articles, reviews, commentaries, and book chapters. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, African Academy of Science and Royal Society of South Africa, Associate Fellow of The World Academy of Science, and member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. Her major awards include the 2000 Unesco-L’Oréal For Women in Science Award (Africa & Middle East), the 2013 Christophe Mérieux Prize from the Mérieux Foundation, Gold Medal of the South African Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2016), the Order of the Mapungubwe (Silver, 2007), SAMRC Platinum Award (2017), and Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship (2018). In 2023, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Valerie has served on numerous scientific advisory boards and review committees locally and abroad. She is currently a member of the Discovery Experts Group of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Board of Governors of the GSK Tres Cantos Open Lab Foundation, and the scientific/external advisory boards of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, the Seattle TB Research Advancement Centre and the Africa Microscopy Initiative. Valerie has trained more than 80 postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows, some of whom have moved into leadership positions in South Africa and abroad. Valerie has sponsored and/or mentored many other postgraduate students, postdocs and junior faculty, and has made significant contributions to programs supporting the career development of dozens of early-career researchers from across Africa.
“I hope to bring to the board an insider’s view of the myriad areas of research excellence at UCT, and in so doing, help foster a sense of pride and excitement within our alumni and donor communities”