World lung health champion

Professor Heather Zar has been recognised as a World Lung Health Champion by the American Thoracic Society’s ATS News. ATS News is being distributed at their conference from 19 to 25 May in Washington DC, which will be attended by over 20 000 people from around the world.

Zar heads the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at UCT and Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital. She is also director of the university’s MRC Unit on Child and Adolescent Health and is regarded as a world-leading paediatric pulmonologist.

Among the initiatives that earned Zar the accolade are mentorship and training programmes such as the African Paediatric Fellowship Programme, which serves paediatric pulmonologists from several African countries and builds capacity in child lung health, among other paediatric disciplines.

Her research focus includes common childhood respiratory diseases as well as chronic non-communicable diseases.