News & Events
Professor Tivani Mashamba-Thompson appointed Chair of the South Africa National Health Research Committee (2026-2029)
Our congratulations to Professor Tivani Mashamba-Thompson on her appointment to Chair of the South Africa National Health Research Committee (2026-2029).
Professor Tivani Mashamba-Thompson is the founding director of the Centre for Development and Implementation of Point-of-Care Diagnostics (CPOC-Dx), a registered medical scientist in molecular biology, and an internationally recognised leader in diagnostics research. She has authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications and has a Google Scholar h-index of 37. In recognition of her contributions, she received the 2022 SAMRC Bronze Scientific Merit Award as an outstanding emerging researcher.
Her academic journey includes an honours in applied biomedical sciences (University of Surrey, UK), a master’s in pharmaceutical chemistry, and a doctorate in public health (University of KwaZulu-Natal). She further advanced her expertise through a postdoctoral fellowship with the Canadian Clinical HIV Trials Network, Global Clinical Research at Harvard Medical School, leadership training at Harvard Kennedy School and the International Association of Universities.
Deeply committed to creating inclusive research environments and capacity building, she has supervised and mentored more than 50 postgraduate students, including master’s, doctoral candidates, postdoctoral fellows, and emerging researchers. During her tenure as Deputy Dean: Research and Postgraduate Studies at the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Health Sciences, she spearheaded the establishment of the Research Support Hub to dismantle systemic barriers and enable equitable access to research resources.
She chairs the NHLS Research and Innovation Committee, is deputy chair of South Africa’s National Health Research Committee, and contributes internationally as a scientific advisor to Abbott International and advisory board member at Cornell University’s PORTENT Centre. Professor Tivani is founding director of the Centre for Development and Implementation of Point-of-Care Diagnostics (CPOC-Dx), University of Pretoria and co-lead for the ARUA-GUILD Multimorbidity Cluster of Research Excellence (AMCORE) (Home | UG Multimorbidity Africa-Europe Clusters of Excellence, led by ARUA and The Guild)