Given the amount of accolades she’s received, it is clear that Shireen Mentor is one the most exceptional young Neurobiologists the country has ever produced. For example, in 2022, she became the first and only South African to win the ‘Healthcare Best PhD Thesis’ Award, an award that aims to recognize young academics who write outstanding PhD theses. Now, her list of accolades does not start in her PhD years. So, let’s begin with her ‘Cum Laude’ years.
In 2010, the Matroosfontein born and bred Shireen completed her Bachelors degree in Medical Biosciences from the University of the Western Cape, and a year later,she completed her Honours degree and graduated ‘Cum Laude’. She went on to repeat that achievement when, in 2014, she yet again graduated cum laude with a Masters degree in Neurobiology. Not only that but given the quality of her Masters thesis, she was awarded the coveted national Wyndham Prize from the Physiology Society of Southern Africa.
Also during her Masters years, she received a travel award to attend the International Union of Physiological Sciences World Congress in Brazil, and she was awarded a Summer Research Internship at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Let’s look at her PhD years.
In 2018, while working on her Neurobiology PhD, Shireen was one of six South African scientists who was nominated by the Academy of Science of South Africa to attend and present their research at the 8th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany. This is a prestigious gathering of the best scientists from around the world and the academy only nominates the most promising young scientists in the disciplines of physics, chemistry, and medicine.
Also in 2018, she was awarded the US based Fulbright Scholarship , one of the most prestigious scholarships in the world. The scholarship is given to the most gifted students and Shireen was selected by a panel of 300 of the world’s best academics and professors. The scholarship also meant that she had the opportunity to study at the University of Missouri for nine months.
Now, for a PhD student to have their research published in an academic journal is a huge achievement and testament to the quality of their work. The quality of Shireen’s work was so good that her PhD research was published four times in four different journals. Her PhD thesis focused on “ultrastructural dynamics of brain endothelial cell communication, key constituents of the blood-brain barrier that protects the brain from pathogens and restricts access of circulatory factors”.
Shireen currently works at the University of Cape Town as a neuroscience lecturer and she is in charge of the ‘Cellular Neurovascular’ research group at the University of Stellenbosch. She has also published or contributed to over 20 academic journal articles.
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