Prof Ernesta Meintjes is the South African Research Chair in Brain Imaging and Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Human Biology at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
She Initiated the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) research programme at UCT in 2001 and Performed the first functional MRI studies in South Africa in 2004. This led to the establishment of the Cape Universities Brain Imaging Centre in 2007, with subsequent expansion to the Cape Universities Body Imaging Centre, of which she has been Director since its inception in 2015.
Prof Meintjes' work focuses on Developing MRI technology and Applying it to study conditions particularly relevant to South Africa. These have included studies on the effects of early life insults (such as prenatal alcohol exposure and HIV exposure and/or infection) on brain development throughout childhood and adolescence as well as improving the diagnosis and prognosis of cardiac disease.
