Faculty of Health Sciences researchers were recognised for their outstanding achievements at the University of Pretoria’s 25th Annual Academic Achievers’ Awards, held on 23 October 2025. Among the recipients of the Exceptional Academic Achievers Award was Professor Ericka Noelle L’Abbé, honoured for her significant contributions to forensic anthropology, research, and postgraduate mentorship.

Professor Ericka Noelle L’Abbé is a forensic anthropologist in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, where she serves as the director of the Forensic Anthropology Research Centre within the Faculty of Health Sciences.

She earned her bachelor's and master's of arts degrees in the United States before completing her doctorate at the University of Pretoria in 2005. She has been a diplomate of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology since 2010, and she has consulted on over 375 forensic anthropology cases for the South African Police Service (SAPS) and forensic pathology units across the country.

Professor L’Abbé teaches human osteology, human evolution, and forensic anthropology and mentors postgraduate students. Her research spans forensic anthropology, skeletal biology, taphonomy, and the use of digital technologies in education and research. Specifically, she focuses on biological profile reconstruction (population affinity), taphonomy, and trauma analysis. Since 2008, she has graduated 23 master’s and 13 doctoral students. She is currently mentoring four master’s students and eight doctoral students on topics in forensic anthropology, with an interdisciplinary focus on experimental gunshot wounds to bone, blunt trauma, saw mark analysis, and improvements in the estimation of the biological profile in South Africa.

She has taught workshops and given research presentations across the Americas, Europe, and Africa. She has presented extensively on bone trauma analysis, forensic anthropology in South Africa, and the ethics of sharing digital data, which has contributed to global forensic science discussions. She has published 65 peer-reviewed articles in ISI-indexed journals, 13 book chapters, and an edited volume on forensic taphonomy with colleagues Drs James Pokines and Steven A Symes.

Professor L’Abbé has successfully led two EU Erasmus+ capacity-building projects, securing €1 million for each project. She has also obtained long-term funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. Her team pioneered Africa’s first digital repository of human skeletal remains and 3D-printed the first complete human skeleton in Africa for educational use. She is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of forensic anthropologists globally and making a sustainable impact in education and research in the discipline.

Professor L’Abbe has received a C1 rating from the NRF.