On the evening of Thursday 3 August, Adrienne Edkins delivered her inaugural lecture on the occasion of her promotion to Full Professor to a packed auditorium in the Eden Grove Blue lecture theatre. Her talk introduced the diverse audience to the world of protein origami (folding) and the role of molecular chaperones that regulate this process in various diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and cancer. Prof Edkins, who joined the department as a Lecturer in 2009, is the Director of the Biomedical Biotechnology Research Unit (since 2011) and holds an NRF/DST SARChI Chair in Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Eukaryotic Stress Response (since 2015). Adrienne completed her undergraduate (2000), Honours (2001) and MSc degrees (2003) at Rhodes University and her PhD degree with Bill Cushley at Glasgow University in cellular biochemistry on the Wellcome Trust Four Year PhD fellowship in Molecular Basis of Disease (2004-2008). In recognition of her research, Adrienne was awarded the Rhodes University VC Distinguished Research Medal (2015) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) South African Women in Science (SAWiSA) Award for Distinguished Young Scientist in the Natural/Engineering Sciences (2018). She is an elected Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (since 2018) and the Cell Stress Society International (since 2020).  Despite all these accolades Prof Edkins told the audience that her proudest moment was the birth of her daughter Reneè, who happens to love doing experiments as much as her mother does! The department offers its heartfelt congratulations to Prof Edkins on her well-earned promotion to the rank of Full Professor.

Photo cred: Siviwe Mxuma