It is my pleasure to inform you that the Executive appointed Professor Wanda Markotter as Interim Director of Future Africa with effect from 1 July 2024, following the resignation of the current Director, Dr Heide Hackmann.

Prof Markotter is an esteemed scholar and holds the Future Africa Research Chair: People, Health, and Places (One Health). She is also the Director of the Centre for Viral Zoonoses (UP-CVZ) in the Faculty of Health Sciences and occupies the DSI-NRF South African Research Chair in "Infectious Diseases of Animals " (Zoonoses). Her interdisciplinary research programme focuses on bat pathogens and predicting and preventing the risk of spillover.

In 2021 she was appointed as the Co-Chair of the One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) advising the World Health Organisation (WHO,) World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

She recently joined the newly established Lancet Commission on Prevention of Viral Spillover, a global team of experts tasked with developing an action plan to reduce the risks of virus transmission between animals and humans - the primary cause of most pandemics.

Prof Markotter’s academic standing, and proven record of transdisciplinary research leadership enables her to lead the Future Africa platform until such time as a permanent director is appointed. Future Africa is one of the University of Pretoria’s flagship platforms that has grown in stature since its inception, and we are proud and committed to strengthening it to take transdisciplinary research and collaboration to even greater heights. We trust that through your support and involvement, we can easily achieve this goal.

I would like to congratulate Professor Markotter and wish her the very best in her new role.