On Friday 5 May 2023, at a gala dinner hosted by the International Office, Prof Tastan Bishop received a trophy for her 2018 Individual Internationalization award. This is in recognition of her many contributions towards promoting and fostering internationalization at the university. The event honoured the recipients of this award from 2018 - 2022.

Prof Tastan Bishop joined Rhodes in October 2009 as a Senior Lecturer, and during the review period was a relatively new academic. Even so, she made many contributions towards the University’s Internationalization agenda, and met 15 (out of 20) of the University’s internationalization criteria, some of which are described below.

She has developed an internationalised curriculum for the 1-year MSc programme in Bioinformatics. This curriculum inspired the establishment of similar degree programs in Africa.

She was part of H3ABioNet, a large Consortium in Africa funded by the National Institutes of Health USA.  As a result, she has established many international partnerships and research articles with international collaborators.

She has organized international conferences, as co-Chair of the 2014 SA Genetics Society and SA Society for Bioinformatics Joint Congress, which jad 8 international plenary speakers.

She was the supervisor or co-supervisor of 10 international MSc and 12 international PhD completions.

She successfully motivated for the 2017 “Distinguished Visiting Professorship”, which was awarded to Prof Canan Atilgan.

During a sabbatical visit in 2018, she gave a workshop and several formal lectures at Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey.

She successfully motivated bilateral agreements between Rhodes University and the University of Tunis Al Manar from Tunisia as well as Sabanci University, Turkey.

She participates in international networks as a member of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education & Training (GOBLET) and the Golden Key International Honours Society.

She has constantly encouraged her students to participate in international opportunities, and as result two of her students were able to make international visits.

She and her students have participated in many international conferences.

Nearly all her many research articles are published in international journals, and in most cases the publications are “open access”.