FACULTY SENIOR ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS & PROMOTIONS

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, School of Clinical Medicine

Dr Pascaline Fru

Dr Fru achieved a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry in 2005, MSc in Biochemistry in 2008 and PhD in Biochemistry in 2012. She also completed the PGDip (HE) in 2021. She is currently employed as the Research Coordinator in the Department of Surgery at Wits University. This is one of the largest academic departments and she contributes significantly to the MMed program. Dr Fru has been up to the task of fostering the teaching, research and service goals and the overall vision of the university at various levels.

Dr Fru has a distinguished track record of Postgraduate teaching, has supervised 10 Masters (2 MSc and 8 MMed), five BSc Honours and one PhD to completion. She is currently supervising an additional 9 MMed, 4 MSc and 3 PhD students. Her teaching scores are above the University average, and it is also worth noting that her teaching extends broadly and is utilized beyond local/national borders.

Dr Fru has successfully aligned her research focus in driving the research agenda of the department by investigating important basic and translational research questions. She has independently obtained the necessary research funding through excellent granstmanship, and has put together a hardworking research team consisting of postgraduate students whom she mentors. Dr Fru has 25 DHET accredited publications. She is first/senior author on 12, has an additional published conference abstract, two non-accredited articles and two book chapters. Her H-index (Google Scholar) is 11 and she has 413 citations. Additionally, Dr Fru is involved in ongoing international collaborative research.

At a Departmental level, she serves on the protocol review committee, the School Graduate Studies & Research committee and the School- and Faculty Research day committee. She is an external examiner for Walter Sisulu University. She is also a reviewer for NRF grant applications. Dr Fru is a fellow of the Africa Science Leadership program, and mentors school-girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. She is involved in various committees and actively contributes to the smooth running of research various meetings. Externally, she recently completed a 4-year stint, serving as external examiner for the Department of Human Biology at Walter Sisulu University. She is a reviewer for numerous journals and serves as an Editorial Board member for the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

We congratulate Dr Fru on her promotion to Associate Professor