Prof Khumbulani Hlongwana, a PhD graduate in Public Health, is an Associate Professor and a Social Scientist in the Discipline of Public Health Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), experienced in teaching, supervising and conducting research, using qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, with over 20 Masters and PhD students supervised to completion, since 2018. He is a Deputy Director for the Cancer & Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Research Unit (CIDERU). His main research interest is on behaviour change and overall uptake of health interventions, drawing from qualitative research methodologies to understanding health and behaviour. He has over 20 years of research experience across diverse diseases spectrum, covering HIV and AIDS, malaria, cancer and overall health systems, culminating in over 70 publications in reputable peer-reviewed international and local journals. In May 2022, he received the Top 30 Publishing Researcher Award for being amongst the Top 30 Publishing Researchers of the University of KwaZulu-Natal for 2020, based on his DHET accredited journal publications.
His research, teaching and supervision experience has enhanced his skills in postgraduate curriculum development and research capacity-building, as he runs several workshops to capacitate research supervisors, postgraduate students and other research partners across the African region. His research passion has propelled him to run research workshops beyond the borders of South Africa, with the recent research training having been offered to 16 members of Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) in Kenya. His academic leadership has been utilized in the academic programme design and negotiating the collaborations with other similar programmes locally and abroad. Prof Hlongwana has been invited by various Universities to moderate postgraduate examination papers, facilitate webinars, mark theses and has peer-reviewed for reputable journals, such as, Malaria Journal, Global Health Action, PLOS One, Heliyon, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, Journal of the International AIDS Society, International Journal of Tropical Disease & Health and BMJ Open.
Prof Hlongwana is a Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PI in several local and international collaborative projects involving Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Eswatini, Lesotho, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Denmark, Norway and Greece. He has presented his work in various local and international conferences and has also served in Local Scientific Committees, Regional Malaria Control Commission (RMCC – which involved Eswatini, Mozambique and South Africa), and Programme Review Panels. He is a member of Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (BREC) since 2016 and served in the Executive of South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (SANCA – Durban) (2013 – 2015). He was part of the Expert Writing Group (EWG) developing South Africa’s Lung Cancer Care Guidelines, leading the Advocacy Chapter and the Regional Malaria Advocacy and Communication Framework (2010-2015) for SADC Member States. In 2018, National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI) invited Prof Hlongwana to join the panel developing a country’s ten-year foresight for the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) aligned to the National Development Plan (NDP). He is one of the co-founders of the Early and Mid-Career Academic Platform (EMAP), an initiative similar to Young Scientist Forum (YSF) that he co-established at the Medical Research Council and presided as National Chairperson between 2009 and 2012.
