SAMRC Scientific Merit Award

The South African Medical Research Council strongly supports excellence in health research and has established a set of medal awards to recognise world-class science. The Awards are among South Africa’s most prestigious and are dedicated to contributions to health research in South Africa.

Gold medals are awarded annually to established senior scientists who have made seminal scientific contributions that have impacted on the health of people, especially those living in developing countries. 

Prof Ambroise Wonkam is Director of GeneMAP (Genetic Medicine of African Populations), at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa and also a professor of Genetic Medicine, and Director of McKusick-Nathans Institute, and Department of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA.

After a MD training from the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé He (Cameroon), he completed a thesis in Medicine/Medical Sciences at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), and a PhD in Human Genetics (University of Cape Town, South Africa).  Prof Wonkam also trains as a specialist medical geneticist at a highly reputable Genetic Medicine at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). He subsequently practices medical genetics in both European and African contexts.

His research interests are reflected in more than 180 peer-reviewed publications. His research focuses on Genomics modifiers of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD); Genetics of hearing loss and Ethical and educational Issues in human genetics in Africa. Prof Wonkam has led successfully over the past 10 years numerous NIH and Wellcome Trust funded projects accounting for about 20m USD, to pursue research studies in various countries in Africa (Tanzania, Cameroon, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Mali, Sudan, Rwanda, and Ghana).

Prof Wonkam is associate Editor of the American Journal of Human Genetics, the American Journal of Medical Genetics, the Journal of Community Genetics, and Academic Editor of Plos One, and member of the editorial Board of Human Genetics.

Prof Wonkam is president of the African Society of Human Genetics, Chair of the steering committee of H3Africa consortium, Board member of the International Federation of Human Genetics Societies, steering committee’s member of the Global Genetic Medicine Collaborative (G2MC), Faculty Scholar of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO).

He was awarded the 2003 Denber-Pinard Prize for the best thesis from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland, and won the very competitive Clinical Genetics Society International Award for 2014, from the British Society of Genetic Medicine, and 2021 Alan Pifer Award, that honours a UCT researcher whose outreach work has contributed to the advancement and welfare of South Africa’s disadvantaged people.

He has previously been funded by SAMRC through its self-initiated grant scheme