Paarl professor honoured for research
2010-11-25
Engela Duvenage
IT has so far been a very good year for Paarl researcher, Prof Faadiel Essop, who on Tuesday evening received a Rector’s Award for Research Excellence as one of the top scientists at Stellenbosch University. The award recognises research excellence by staff members in the various faculties and departments of the University. Earlier in the year, Prof Essop was also promoted to full professor at the university, in recognition of his academic abilities, while his administrative skills were also acknowledged when he was officially appointed as chair of the Department of Physiological Sciences. The SU Rector’s Award is a highlight in a career that also includes accolades such as the Young Researcher Prize of the South African Association of Clinical Biochemists, the British Council’s Chevening-Helen Suzman scholarship which allowed him to do cancer-related studies in England, and the prestigious Fulbright Fellowship to study heart metabolism with a renowned American researcher in Texas. “I’ve been interested in deeper questions, and have been dabbling with microscopes ever since I was a boy,” says this former pupil of Paulus Joubert Primary and Noorder Paarl High School (matric 1980). “I once even dissected a rabbit when I was young, but that was quite a messy affair,” recalls this elected member of the American Physiological Society’s International Committee with a grin. “Back then, horizons were still limited, and I took my career path one step at a time,” he says about his chosen study field. “Just going to the University of Cape Town then was already a big achievement.” He acknowledged the perseverance of his parents, Fareda and Yusuf, who gave him their full support to pursue postgraduate studies, which eventually led to a doctorate in molecular medicine in the Department of Chemical Pathology at UCT. “My parents had the patience to support me, and I just smiled when others asked when I was going to get a job and marry,” he laughs. In 1997, this avid tennis player decided to pursue a career in heart disease research after being struck by alarming projections that cardiovascular diseases will constitute the major global burden of disease by 2020. In 1998 he took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the newly established Hatter Heart Research Institute at UCT’s Faculty of Health Sciences, where he worked under the world-renowned Professor Lionel Opie. While there, he met his wife Rehana, who was a medical student at the UCT Medical School. She now works as a doctor in Paarl for the HIV clinic sponsored by Anova/USAid. Together they have three children Ziyaad (14), Aaliyah (10) and Yasin (8). After years of working at UCT, Prof Essop joined Stellenbosch University in 2007 to successfully establish the Cardio-Metabolic Research Group that focuses on how high blood glucose levels contribute to heart disease in diabetics. His students have been awarded several prizes at national meetings for outstanding research work. This amateur historian has a deep interest in Muslim affairs, and even holds a BA (Honours) degree in Arabic which he received after part-time studies at UWC. To Paarl Post readers, this great-grandson of the well-known late Hajjee Sullaiman Shahmahomed is also known as the compiler of its annual Eid supplement.
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