Dear Staff and Student Colleagues 
 
I am delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Sharon Prince as Interim Deputy Dean: Research as of 1 June 2023 for two years. I am looking forward to Sharon’s contribution to strengthening our research portfolio, and welcome her to the management team.  
 
I am profoundly grateful to Dr Yolande Harley for her exceptional service as the Acting Deputy Dean: Research, demonstrating excellence throughout her tenure from February 2022 to May 2023. Yolande will continue in her role as Director of Research in the Faculty Research Office (FRO).  

Sharon Prince is a Professor in Cell Biology and currently, the Head of the Department of Human Biology at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She obtained a BSc degree, a BSc (Hons) degree with distinction and a PhD in Cell Biology, both from UCT. Following her PhD, Sharon’s research was initiated through a prestigious Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral fellowship, which enabled her to spend time at the Marie Curie Research Institute in the United Kingdom. On her return to South Africa, she established an independent research programme in cancer biology at UCT in 2002, was appointed as lecturer in 2005 and was promoted ad hominem to Senior Lecturer in 2008, Associate Professor in 2012 and full Professor in 2016. 

Sharon is an internationally renowned researcher in the field of cancer biology where she has made significant contributions to the understanding of the role and regulation of the developmentally crucial T-box transcription factors, TBX2 and TBX3, in cancer. She is well recognised nationally and internationally as a leader in the field of T-box transcription factors and their role in cancer aetiology. Her international reputation rests on identifying the potential of T-box factors as novel targets in the development of effective anticancer therapeutics in addition to the use of organometallic compounds as cancer drugs, and the repurposing of existing non-cancer drugs for cancer therapies. Sharon’s work has been published in more than 80 high-impact international journals and she has co-authored two book chapters and has one patent. She is regularly invited to give lectures at national and international meetings and is a regular reviewer for journals and funding bodies. She has successfully attracted both local and international funds for her research in highly competitive focus areas. 
 
Integral to Sharon’s research is her highly effective training of postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows; this includes 16 postdoctoral fellows; 22 PhD; 18 MSc and 29 Honours students. Her commitment to education and training is highlighted by her students and postdoctoral researchers frequently winning awards at national and international research meetings. Sharon is regularly invited to give public talks on cancer and actively contributes to advocacy and highlights the burden of cancer in our society. Her laboratory also regularly hosts learners from disadvantaged schools and organises and hosts a CANSA Shavathon annually, which helps to increase awareness around this debilitating disease. 

Sharon has received several awards and recognitions for her academic scholarship. She was awarded the South African Medical Research Council's Gold Medal in recognition of her excellence in research in 2023, elected to the UCT College of Fellows in 2022, awarded the National Research Foundation’s Hamilton Naki Award in 2021, elected member of The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) in 2017 and was recognised by UCT as one of its leading women innovators in 2018. In 2019, she was appointed a visiting Professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and a visiting researcher at the University Côte d’Azur, Nice, France and was invited as a Visiting Fellow at the SRM University, Chennai, India. She received the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Fellowship in 2019 and 2011, the Harry Crossley Senior Clinical Fellowship in 2010, was appointed the Director of a breast cancer consortium funded by the Department of Science and Technology and Cancer Research Initiative of South Africa and is an Associate Editor for Molecular and Cellular Oncology (specialty section of Frontiers in Oncology and Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology) and on the editorial board of the British Journal of Cancer Reports. 
 
Congratulations to you, Sharon, I wish you all the best as you take on this new leadership role.

Kaise ke gangans
Associate Professor Lionel Green-Thompson
Dean: Faculty of Health Sciences