Prof Yahya E. Choonara, PhD is Chair and Head of the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology at Wits University (Johannesburg, South Africa). He is a Personal Professor of Pharmaceutics and Co-Director of the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) syndicate based at the Wits Health Consortium (Pty) Ltd. He is also the Principal Researcher of the WADDP Research Unit responsible for blueprinting innovation in partnership with research groups globally and pharmaceutical industry since 2007. His pioneering approach to optimize drug delivery technologies is revolutionary in the field of Pharmaceutics and internationally recognized. He received many local and international prestigious awards in recognition of his expertise including an African Union (AU)-The World Academy of Science (TWAS) Award for advancing technology and innovation (2015) and a National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) Award (2012) for his seminal research in designing first-in-the-world optimization frameworks for advanced drug delivery technologies, neuro-pharmaceutical devices (neuroDegeneration, neuroRegeneration and neuroTrauma), tissue engineering, biomaterials and targeted nanomedicines. He has been inducted as a TWAS affiliate ((2013) and is a Deanery Member of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) (2017). He delivered several invited keynote addresses globally including the Japan Science and Technology Agency’s Nobel Laureates Future Leaders Network Science and Technology for Society Forum for his expertise on rapid dissolving orodispersible technologies, intraocular devices and donut-shaped minitablets, 3D-bioprinting systems and biomaterials for tissue engineering applications including resorbable wound healing systems and neuro-active implants for neuro-trauma interventions. In 2010 he was invited to the 3rd African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI) Stakeholders Meeting (UN Offices, Kenya) as an expert to establish the CoE in Advanced Drug Delivery at the WADDP. He received the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences research recognition award for 8 consecutive years (2010-2018) for his pioneering work in ‘PharMATHaceutics’ (a term he has coined) to introduce complete optimization frameworks for advanced drug delivery and tissue engineering technologies by merging Design of Experiments (DoE), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), in silico molecular modeling and other stochastic approaches. He also serves on academic, scientific organizations and statutory councils, inter alia, appointed by the Honorable Minister of Health to the South African Pharmacy Council (SAPC), the BRICS Business Council Manufacturing Working Group, the National Standards Committee for the Council of Higher Education, Founding Board Member of the SA Young Academy of Science (SAYAS), Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS), American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) and the Pharmaceutical Society of SA (PSSA). He has graduated >70 postgraduates (cum laude) and postdocs who are recipients of emerging researcher awards under his supervision including the Wits Most Prestigious PhD Degree Award (in 2008, 2010, 2018), Young African Researcher 2018, M&G’s Top 200 Young South Africans, African-German Network of Excellence in Science Junior Researcher (AvH Foundation) and the Novartis Next Generation Scientist Program. He collaborates globally and has over 300 publications with 41 book chapters and editorials as well as edited 2 books. Prof. Choonara is also a prolific international inventor with 43 patents (21 granted – US, EU, JPN, CHN, IND) and serves as a Guest Editor and Reviewer of over 90 leading journals, books and funding organizations.