Jacqueline Weyer

Jacqueline Weyer is a Principal Senior Medical Scientist in the Centre for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases since 2007. Here she is tasked with the laboratory investigation (diagnostics and research) of human rabies, viral haemorrhagic fevers and arboviral disease of concern to the health of the South African public. She acts as the Lead Medical Scientist for the Special Viral Pathogens Division and also serves as a member of the leadership team of the Centre. Before taking up her task at the NICD, she completed her PhD in Microbiology at the University of Pretoria on the subject of recombinant poxvirus based vaccines for rabies. From 2004 to 2005 she was employed as Research Fellow with the Rabies Unit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America. In 2006 she was awarded the L’Oreal- UNESCO Department of Science and Technology Woman in Science Award: PhD Fellowship for Life Sciences.

In 2008, Jacqueline was appointed as Extra-Ordinary Lecturer to the Department of Microbiology and later the Department of Medical Virology at the University of Pretoria. She was appointed as a Lecturer at the School of Pathology, University of Witwatersrand in 2020. Her track record includes supervision of 14 BSc Hons or MSc research studies, one MPH and three PhD students. In the past 10 years, Jacqueline has authored and co-authored more than 40 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, and five chapters in books. In 2017 she achieved a C2-rating with the National Research Foundation of South Africa.

She has served as a member of the National Rabies Advisory Group since 2008 and was the co-editor of the National Guide for the Medical, Veterinary and Allied Professions in 2010 and 2021. In 2012 she was elected the Vice-President of the South African Biorisk Association. This was followed in 2015 by election as the President of this Association. She was also elected as the Co-Chair of the National One Health Forum of South Africa in 2015 and a Steering Committee Member of the African One Health Network since 2019.

Jacqueline’s interests include the laboratory diagnostics, epidemiology, pathogenesis and host interactions of rabies virus and other zoonotic viral pathogens that cause diseases of public health importance in South Africa.