South African Health Excellence Awards 2018
24th November 2018
World Aids Day
5th December 2018
21 November 2018 | Story Nadia Krige
The Alan Pifer Award is the VC’s annual prize in recognition of outstanding welfare-related research. It honours a UCT researcher whose outreach work has contributed to the advancement and welfare of South Africa’s disadvantaged people, and highlights UCT’s strategy for promoting socially responsive research. The prize was established to honour Alan Pifer, philanthropist and former president of the Carnegie Corporation. A long-term and generous UCT benefactor, he died in 2005. Professor Michael Kyobe, UCTʼs acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalisation, had the honour of announcing this year’s winner, Professor Heather Zar.
Alan Pifer Award
The Alan Pifer Award is the VC’s annual prize in recognition of outstanding welfare-related research. It honours a UCT researcher whose outreach work has contributed to the advancement and welfare of South Africa’s disadvantaged people, and highlights UCT’s strategy for promoting socially responsive research. The prize was established to honour Alan Pifer, philanthropist and former president of the Carnegie Corporation. A long-term and generous UCT benefactor, he died in 2005. Professor Michael Kyobe, UCTʼs acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Internationalisation, had the honour of announcing this year’s winner, Professor Heather Zar.
Zar is a paediatrician and scientist who has gained a reputation for rising above the challenges posed by a lack of resources to create new strategies to address key childhood illnesses. Over the past 20 years, she has helped improve and save the lives of thousands of children through research and innovation in child health.
She is chair of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, and director of the South African Medical Research Council’s Child and Adolescent Lung Health Unit.
Earlier this year Zar was also named the 2018 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Laureate for Africa and the Arab States, and received the World Lung Health Award from the American Thoracic Society.
She is chair of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, and director of the South African Medical Research Council’s Child and Adolescent Lung Health Unit.
Earlier this year Zar was also named the 2018 L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Laureate for Africa and the Arab States, and received the World Lung Health Award from the American Thoracic Society.
