Riana Bornman, MBChB, MD, DSc
From basic scientific research in human male reproductive health (Andrology) her interest expanded to include animals and wildlife as biosentinel species to define health sequelae of environmental pollution and propose strategies to mitigate human health problems. Since 2002 her Public Health focus has been on health effects in malarial areas where insecticides, including DDT - a known endocrine disrupter and toxicant - are applied for mosquito vector control with inadvertent exposure of humans and the environment.聽
She has done extensive research in communities of the Vhembe District, Limpopo Province through local VhaVenda women who were specifically trained for recruitment and data collection in a mutually beneficial partnership between research staff and study villages.聽 This partnership makes it possible to collect high quality data and publish in high impact journals, whilst empowering聽聽聽 women for remote rural areas to make a difference for their communities.聽
She is a NRF C1-rated researcher, member of the UP Institute for Sustainable Malaria Control (UP ISMC) and MRC Collaborating Centre for Malaria Research and served on several World Health Organization committees. Scientific data from her studies human and environmental studies in Vhembe were incorporated in the WHO DDT Health Risk Assessment (2011).聽聽
She has compiled various reports for the Water Research Commission on endocrine disrupters, DDT and human and environmental health effects.聽 She has more than 180 publications in local and international peer reviewed journals, and has presented her work at many local and international conferences.聽 She served on the expert panel that compiled 鈥淭he State of the Science on EDC 2012鈥� for The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).聽 Most recently she represented the Endocrine Society at the IPEN Global Meeting & Toxics-Free Future Forum held in San Francisco during November 2016.