The University of Pretoria’s (UP) Faculty of Health Sciences has conferred an honorary doctorate (honoris causa) in Medicine on Professor Charles Feldman during its autumn 2021 graduations.

Prof Feldman is recognised as a world authority on pneumococcal pulmonary infections. He has spent the entire 40 years of his medical career in academic medicine, and has advised several international health organisations that direct policy formulation and mitigate the risk to human health.  

“Prof Feldman’s commitment to research and clinical management has saved lives in South Africa and globally,” said Professor Tawana Kupe, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of UP. “We are grateful for his immense contribution to his field, which upholds the very values that our institution advocates – using knowledge to positively impact society. We are greatly pleased to be able to continue our relationship with him. Congratulations to Prof Feldman.”

Born and brought up in Johannesburg, Prof Feldman is currently the Distinguished Professor of Pulmonology in the Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, where he obtained his MB BCh degree in 1975. He has been an A2 NRF rated scientist since 2010, and this distinction was renewed until 2021. In recognition of his research excellence, Prof Feldman received the Platinum Scientific Achievement Award of the Medical Research Council (MRC) of South Africa in 2018. He was appointed as a member of the Medical Scientific Advisory Committee (MSAC) of the Global Pneumonia Prevention Coalition (GPPC) in 2016.

Prof Feldman has written more than 50 books and book chapters and has had over 300 ISI publications, many in high impact factor journals such as Lancet Infectious Diseases (27,516) and NEJM (70.670). His H-index is 41 on ISI Web of Knowledge and 59 on Google Scholar. This H-index is one of the highest for a South African scientist.

Prof Feldman has been a member of the American Thoracic Society since 1995, active in the Microbiology, Tuberculosis and Pulmonary Infection (MTPI) Assembly.  He has been President of the South African Thoracic Society on two occasions and was awarded an Honorary Life Membership. He has been awarded the prestigious and rare distinctions of Fellowship of the American Thoracic Society and Fellowship of the Faculty of the European Respiratory Society in 2015; with only one hundred chest physicians and scientists permitted membership of the latter Faculty at any one time.

“Prof Feldman has a long history of service and cooperation with the Department of Immunology at the University of Pretoria,” said Professor Tiaan de Jager, Dean of UP’s Faculty of Health Sciences. “He has jointly supervised four PhDs for UP, and 108 of his scientific publications have UP co-authors. The University is pleased to recognise and honour him with an honorary doctorate in Medicine.”