Professor Tricia Naicker

Professor Naicker is the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) youngest associate professor in the College of Health Sciences, and the youngest academic leader/head of discipline for pharmaceutical sciences.

Naicker completed her PhD in an area (asymmetric organocatalysis) that that had not previously been explored in Africa. Her fully published thesis and academic efforts won her the 2011 Department of Science and Technology Women in Science doctoral fellowship. Her research outputs earned her a prestigious Oppenheimer postdoctoral award, which she pursed at Aarhus University, Denmark, in 2012, under the guidance of the world-renowned Karl Jørgensen (h-index 90). Naicker was the first candidate from the African continent to be accepted into this esteemed research facility.

She was appointed as a senior lecturer at UKZN in 2013. Naicker’s specialised expertise and pioneering in the field saw the highly ranked Catalysis and Peptide Research Unit at UKZN commence collaboration with her — the first woman to join their team. After a short time, Naicker became the principal investigator in the unit and took over the leadership of the division for synthetic drug discovery. She has thus far secured more than R5-million in funding as main/co-applicant and has graduated 10 MSc and four PhD students as main/co-supervisor. She is currently supervising five MSc and three PhD students and mentoring three postdoctoral fellows.

Naicker has a remarkable 72 publications in international peer-reviewed journals. In addition, she serves as an editor for the South African Journal of Chemistry. She supports the mentoring of younger academics/postgraduates in active research by initiating collaborations (local and international) with emerging researchers and school learners.

Her current research interests are method development in the organic synthesis of biologically important intermediates/drugs in the field of antibacterials.
This work has led to a patent of innovative new molecules targeting drug-resistant bacteria, which are becoming a serious global problem.