Prof Debbie Bradshaw to be conferred Honorary Doctorate by the University of Cape Town
Cape Town | Professor Debbie Bradshaw from the South African Medical Research Council’s (SAMRC) Burden of Disease Research Unit (BODRU) will be conferred with an honorary Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) degree at a graduation ceremony taking place in September this year at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
Prof Bradshaw completed her doctorate in Biomathematics at Oxford University and is an esteemed biostatistician and epidemiologist who established BODRU in 2000. In the face of government denial of AIDS, she steered a landmark study on the impact of HIV/AIDS on adult mortality which contributed to shifting government policy to provide widespread access to anti-retroviral treatment. She led ground-breaking studies on South Africa’s health landscape such as conducting the country's First National Burden of Disease Study which characterised the rapidly changing health patterns in South Africa. Providing opportunities to develop analytical skills in young researchers, she directed the Second Comparative Risk Assessment which focused attention on trends in modifiable risk factors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led the development of a mortality surveillance system to provide near-to-real-time monitoring of excess deaths. Prof Bradshaw has mentored a new generation of emerging specialist scientists who will sustain and repeat each of these studies within BODRU’s expanding research portfolio.
Prof Bradshaw has been committed to improving the use of data for decision-making and has provided technical support to the National Department of Health and the World Health Organization. She co-heads the South African WHO-Family of International Classification Collaborating Centre which is now reaching out to support development in the African Region.
On receiving this prestigious recognition, Prof Bradshaw said “This award has been possible through ongoing support from the SAMRC, support from my colleagues in BODRU and support from many collaborators over the years. It is a testament to the African proverb “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”.
She is an honorary Professor in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at UCT and is heartened by the energy and expertise of the new generation of public health researchers in South Africa “as we still face many challenges, none more critical than addressing the enormous inequalities in health and access to health care”. Her remarkable career, spanning decades, reflects a profound commitment to improving the lives of all South Africans, exemplifying the mission of the SAMRC.
Prof Liesl Zülhke, SAMRC Vice President-Extramural Research & Internal Portfolio said “We are extremely proud of Prof Bradshaw’s remarkable body of work and the phenomenal researcher and person that she is. We express our sincere congratulations to her, it is incredibly well deserved indeed.”
For more inquiries please contact:
Dr Ebrahim Samodien
Science Writer & Editor
Corporate & Marketing Communications
Tel: +27 21 938 0294
E-mail: Ebrahim.Samodien@mrc.ac.za