Dear colleagues and students
The University of Cape Town (UCT) is home to scholarship that engages deeply with the challenges and opportunities shaping our world. Through the UCT Inaugural Lecture series, we celebrate the achievements of our professors and provide a platform for them to share the research, questions and collaborations that have defined their academic journeys.
In October, we will host two inaugural lectures by Professors Amin Karimu and Diane Gray. Their lectures reflect the breadth and impact of UCT scholarship, from examining how Africa can translate its considerable resources into shared prosperity to advancing respiratory health for children across Africa and beyond.
1. Professor Amin Karimu (Faculty of Commerce)
Professor Karimu will deliver his inaugural lecture, “Can Africa turn its wealth into prosperity?” on Thursday, 1 October 2026 at 17:00 SAST in the Mafeje Room, Bremner Building, lower campus.
Africa possesses extraordinary natural and human resources – including minerals, oil and gas, fertile land, renewable-energy potential and rich biodiversity. Yet these resources have not consistently translated into improved living standards for many people across the continent. Drawing on his research, Professor Karimu will examine how natural resources, institutions, energy and finance interact to shape Africa’s development, and consider how renewable energy, climate and green finance, and private investment can support a more sustainable and inclusive development path.
At the heart of Professor Karimu’s research is a question that has shaped much of his academic journey: how can African economies transform their considerable human and natural resource wealth into sustainable and widely shared prosperity? His work spans energy and environmental economics, development economics, applied microeconomics and natural resource economics, combining rigorous research with a strong interest in the policies, institutions and financing mechanisms that can help overcome development constraints.
Karimu is a professor of economics at UCT and is affiliated with the Environmental Policy Research Unit (EPRU) in the School of Economics. He is also a visiting professor at Birmingham City University in the United Kingdom. He holds a PhD in Economics from Umeå University in Sweden, an MSc in Economics from Dalarna University and a BA in Economics and Geography from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. Before joining UCT, he held an academic position at the University of Ghana and worked as a senior researcher at the Centre for Environmental and Resource Economics at Umeå University.
Beyond the university, Professor Karimu has worked with international and development organisations to strengthen the connection between academic research and practical policy challenges. He also plays an active role in building research networks across Africa. Within the Environment for Development initiative, he coordinates the Natural Capital Collaborative, hosted at EPRU, which brings together researchers working on water, biodiversity, sustainable agriculture and forestry. More recently, his research has focused on financing Africa’s green transition and the opportunities it presents for sustainable development.
2. Professor Diane Gray (Faculty of Health Sciences)
Professor Gray will present her inaugural lecture, “Strengthening respiratory health across the life course: lessons from African children”, on Thursday, 29 October 2026 at 18:00 SAST in the New Learning Centre Lecture Theatre, Anatomy Building, health sciences campus.
This lecture will explore what African-led child-health research can teach us about strengthening health across the life course, both on the continent and globally. Professor Gray will focus on growing evidence that lung function is an important marker of long-term health and mortality risk, highlighting the need to understand lung development from early life through adulthood. Drawing on research involving South African child cohorts, she will present evidence on the early determinants of lung health and opportunities for public health interventions.
Africa is home to more than a third of the world’s children and carries a disproportionate burden of respiratory disease and its risk factors. Professor Gray’s research focuses on the determinants, diagnosis and prevention of lung disease in African children, with particular attention to populations that have historically been underrepresented in global research. Her work has contributed important data to international efforts to strengthen respiratory diagnostics and understand lung function trajectories across the life course.
Gray is a professor of paediatrics at UCT’s Department of Paediatrics and Child Health and also a paediatric respiratory physician at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. She and her team established the first infant and preschool lung function programme in Africa and have contributed to efforts to expand respiratory physiology training and access to lung function testing across the continent. Through her work in paediatric respiratory training and as founder and co-chair of the Pan African Thoracic Society African Paediatric Lung Function Working Group, she has helped build networks of respiratory researchers and clinicians across Africa.
Her broad local, regional and international collaborations share a common goal of strengthening the health of African children and ensuring that African children and African-led research remain central to global efforts to improve respiratory health. Her contributions have been recognised through several awards, including the South African Medical Research Council Silver Research Award in 2021 and the European Respiratory Society Gold Medal for Midcareer Researcher in 2025. She remains committed to equitable capacity building and to supporting the next generation of African clinical scientists through teaching and mentorship.
These inaugural lectures showcase how UCT’s academic community is contributing knowledge and ideas to some of the most pressing questions facing Africa and the world. They reflect the importance of rigorous research, collaboration and scholarship that seek to improve lives and build a more sustainable and equitable future. This is embedded in our Strategy 2030.
As Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai observed, “It is important to nurture any new ideas and initiatives which can make a difference for Africa”. This spirit of inquiry, innovation and public purpose is at the heart of the inaugural lecture series, as our professors share ideas shaped by years of research and consider how scholarship can contribute to addressing some of the challenges facing our continent and the world.
I encourage all members of our university community to attend these lectures, engage with the ideas presented and join us in recognising the achievements and contributions of our colleagues.
Sincerely
Professor Mosa Moshabela
Vice-Chancellor
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