Palesa Sekhejane

Dr Palesa Sekhejane holds an MTech and a DTech in health sciences from the University of Johannesburg. She is a medical technologist who specialised in biophotonics, which is the application of light-based (laser) medicine to a biological system, in a simulated diabetic model for example, as well as photodynamic therapy for cancer treatment. Sekhejane is a research specialist at the HSRC.

During her studies, she published work emanating from her research experiments, resulting to 11 journal articles and a book chapters. Her current research interests are in health governance, biosciences, biomedical innovation and technology. She was part of the scientific committee and organising committee of the first Gender Summit Africa in 2015. She was also a member of the woman and gender cluster of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), an advisory organ to the African Union.

Sekhejane is a research associate at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and a co-supervisor of master’s candidates in the Applied Sciences Research Unit of UJ’s Faculty of Sciences. She is also a member of Organisation for Women in Sciences Development, which champions and addresses the obstacles faced by women in developing countries. This landed her into participating at the launch of prestigious Next Einstein Forum. Most recently, she became the co-chairperson of the UJ-led maiden international conference on Food Security and Safety. She also forms part of L’Oréal Sub Saharan team for Women in Sciences.