BY Nkosazana Ngwadla
Salome Maswime is Professor and Head of the Global Surgery Division; an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, and chair of the University of the Future Project at the University of Cape Town. She is a member of the Academy of Science South Africa, Chairperson of the Health Systems Trust Board; Vice-President of Women in Global Health South Africa; founder and President of the South African Clinician Scientists Society, Global Council member of LifeBox; board member of FALF and SHAWCO, and member of the FIGO Committee on Ethical Aspects of Human Reproduction.
After specialising, she completed her MMed and PhD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She did a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She has a diploma in Project Management, a Certificate in Leading Organisations and Change from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, completed the Young Physician Leaders Programme with ESMT Graduate Business School in Berlin, has a Certificate in Programme Management at UCT, and a certificate in Higher Education Teaching from Harvard.
Salome is a clinician scientist who has worked in several hospitals in South Africa, including the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, where she spent 10 years. Her research is about access to safe and timely obstetric surgery and birth outcomes and has pioneered an academic programme in Global Surgery.
She has received numerous awards for her research contribution to maternal health, including the trailblazer and young achiever award by the President of South Africa in 2017. In 2020, she was listed on Mail and Guardian’s 50 most powerful women in South Africa, and was awarded a Midcareer Scientist award by the South African Medical Research Council.
Salome was named a Next Einstein Fellow in 2019, a World Economic Forum Young Scientist in 2020, a Young Shaper of the Future of Health and Medicine by Encyclopaedia Brittanica in 2021, and the winner of Tumani Corrah Prize for Research Excellence in 2022.
“What a wonderful inaugural. Grateful to all who were part of this exciting induction as full professor, from far and from near!” she wrote in celebration.
Image: LinkedIn
