Prof Sharon Prince and Emeritus Prof Kit Vaughan elected as new members of ASSAf

Congratulations to Professor Sharon Prince and Emeritus Professor Kit Vaughan to their recent election as new members of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

Professor Sharon Prince is the Head of the Division of Cell Biology at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She heads a cancer biology laboratory and has trained several postdoctoral fellows and postgraduate students. Her research focuses on identifying and characterising novel therapeutic interventions and drug targets for cancer. She has published several seminal papers on the role and regulation of the transcription factors TBX2 and TBX3 in cancer and is internationally recognized as a pioneer and authority in this field. She collaborates with leading international researchers, publishes in top journals in the field, is invited to give lectures at national and international meetings and is a regular reviewer for journals and funding bodies. She was appointed the Director of a breast cancer consortium in 2012, was awarded an Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Fellowship in 2011 and the Harry Crossley Senior Clinical Fellowship in 2010.

Professor Vaughan is a leading international scholar in biomedical engineering. He has made a seminal contribution to the international knowledge base on biomechanics, and more recently, to the development of the South African medical device industry. His research on and development of novel imaging methods for the early detection of breast cancer has led to a patented dual-modality breast imaging device which is being commercialised by CapeRay Medical, a start-up company founded and led by Professor Vaughan. Professor Vaughan has built significant scientific and technological capacity in South Africa, through his training of postgraduate students in biomedical engineering, his employment of young engineering graduates at CapeRay Medical, and his mentorship of emerging academics at the University of Cape Town. Prof Vaughan held an A-rating from the National Research Foundation during 2004-2015, and is a Fellow the South African Academy of Engineering and the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering.