Professor Yahya E. Choonara (BPharm; MPharm; PhD) is currently Chair and Head of the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Johannesburg, South Africa (SA). He is also a Full Professor of Pharmaceutics, Co-Director and Principal Researcher of the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) (http://www.wits.ac.za/waddp) responsible for blueprinting innovation since 2007. His research is at the forefront of producing targeted and personalized medicines to treat infectious, hereditary and lifestyle diseases in which he continues to make a major impact on generating intellectual property in the pharmaceutical sciences pertinent to Africa and globally.

Prof. Choonara received many prestigious awards in recognition of his pioneering research including an African Union-The World Academy of Science Award for advancing pharmaceutical technology and innovation, the National Science and Technology Forum Award for his seminal research in designing first-in-the-world optimization frameworks for drug delivery, neuro-pharmaceutical devices, biomaterials and nanomedicines, the SAMRC Award for challenging conformist thinking on neuro-pharmaceutical interventions, the DSI Top Intellectual Property Creator Award for his 21 international granted patents including a WaferMat - the world’s fastest dissolving matrix, drug-eluting devices, 3D-bioprinted platforms, nanomedicines, neuro-therapeutics and bio-inspired tissue engineering scaffolds.

He is a member of several prestigious academies including the Academy of Science of SA, AIM Advisory Committee Member of the International Pharmaceutical Federation, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences of SA, the BRICS Business Council Manufacturing Working Group, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society, European Peptide Society and Founding Member of the SA Young Academy of Science (SAYAS).

Prof. Choonara is an author of more than 280 publications in ISI-accredited journals, 41 book chapters, 10 editorials, editor of 2 books, filed 43 patents and serves as an expert Reviewer of over 53 leading journals, books and funding organizations. He has also graduated more than 65 postgraduates and mentored 12 postdocs from 9 different countries with many of his students conferred with prestigious emerging researcher awards such as the Young African Researcher, Mail & Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans, African-German Network of Excellence in Science and candidates for the Novartis Next Generation Scientists Program.