Dear Staff and Student Colleagues 

Following the retirement of the Head of the Department (HoD) of Human Biology, Associate Professor Delva Shamley, at the end of 2024, Professor Ernesta Meintjes has been serving as HoD: Human Biology in an acting capacity since 1 January 2025. As the recruitment process for a formal HoD is still underway, Professor Meintjes’ tenure has been extended for a further year.   

As HoD, Professor Meintjes has been responsible for shaping the vision, direction and success of the department across clinical, academic, research and administrative domains. I am delighted that she has fulfilled her duties with the utmost dedication over the past year. 

Professor Meintjes is a full professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT), and from 2007 to 2021 held the prestigious South African Research Chair in Brain Imaging. She completed her Bachelor’s, Honours and Master’s degrees in Physics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and obtained a PhD in Physics from Oregon State University in the United States of America (USA).  

Upon her return to South Africa in 1998, Professor Meintjes joined the Division of Biomedical Engineering at UCT as a postdoctoral fellow, where she contributed to developing a stereophotogrammetric image-guided neurosurgical navigator.  

Following the commissioning of the first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner at Groote Schuur Hospital in November 2001, Professor Meintjes embarked on establishing a research stream and, in 2004, implemented the first functional MRI studies in South Africa. These studies led to the establishment of the Cape Universities Brain Imaging Centre (CUBIC), with subsequent expansion to the Cape Universities Body Imaging Centre, of which she has been director since its inception in 2015.  

I thank you for continuing to avail yourself, Professor Meintjes. Your leadership has ensured that this pivotal department continues delivering in terms of its mandate, and we wish you all the very best in the year ahead. Enkosi kakhulu.

Kaise ge gangans

Professor Lionel Green-Thompson
Dean: Faculty of Health Sciences