Professor Liesl Zühlke is the Vice-President of the South African Medical Research Council- Extramural Research and Internal portfolio (ER-IP), a paediatric cardiologist in the Division of Paediatric Cardiology at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and director of the Children’s Heart Disease Research Unit focused on family-centred research into Children’s Heart Diseases of relevance in Africa. Her research projects span Congenital and Rheumatic Heart Disease, HIV in adolescents, Grown-up Congenital Heart Disease and cardiac disease in women of childbearing age.  She was the 2018 recipient of the MRC/Dfid African Research Leader Award, a finalist in the 22nd National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF)-South32 Awards for the category: TW Kambule-NSTF Award: Researcher and is designated one of the top three international scholars in RHD research. She was the 2020 recipient of the NRF award for public engagement with research and the 2022 Winner of the Metrodora Award for a Public Leader in Health and Research. She recently was the 2022 American Heart Association Young Hearts Award and delivered the T Duckett Jones lecture, the frist African Recipient of this honour.  She also is a member of the Bongani Mayosi Research collaborative with 3 other former protégées of the late Prof Mayosi which has funded African researchers, and as part of RHDAction, developed a small grant initiative which funded over 60 grants related to Rheumatic Heart Disease. She is NRF -rated, had over 160 publications and over 40 000 citations and is a member of the board of the World Heart Federation, NCD Alliance and a previous president of the Paediatric cardiac society of South Africa and the South African Heart Association.