Freedom Gumedze is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Statistical Sciences at University of Cape Town. He obtained his PhD in Statistical Sciences from UCT in 2009. He has been involved in research, teaching and consulting in statistical sciences at UCT since 2000. His research interests lie in the development and application of statistical methods in health sciences research, especially but not exclusively in the areas of dermatology and cardiology. The theoretical aspects of his research work has involves the development of methods for the analysis of multivariate longitudinal or repeated measures data including methods for the detection of outliers/robust estimation, survival analysis, joint analysis of longitudinal data and survival data, competing or semi-competing risks, models for recurrent events, design and analysis of clinical trials, meta-analysis and statistical methods for medical diagnosis data.

Over the years, Dr Gumedze has been involved and currently involved in several health-related or medical studies. His role in these studies is to provide statistical leadership at planning and statistical analysis stages of the research. He has a C1 rating from the NRF and a previous holder of the prestigious Newton Advanced Fellowship.

He serves on the executive committees of the International Biometrics Society and the South African Statistical Association. He is member of the Africa Research Excellence Fund College of Experts, Medical Research Council Foundation, UK. He is the chairperson of the Statistics Academic Committee: National Graduate Academy for Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (NGA-MaSS). He serves on the Advisory Board of the NGA-MaSS. He is a member of the Department of Science and Innovation Expert Group with the mandate for the reconfiguration of the National Institute of Theoretical Physics (NITheP). He currently serves on two NRF review panels: SARChI Replacement Chairs Review Panel and the physics, Astronomy, Mathematics and ICT Review Panel. He set on review panels for The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). He is a member of the University of Cape Town Senate and sits on the Senate committees: the University of Cape Town Research Committee, the University of Cape Town Admissions Committee and the Commission of Inquiry. He is also a core member of the Science Faculty Remunerations and Promotions Committee.