Prof Willie van Heerden is Head of the Department of Oral Pathology and Oral Biology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He qualified as a Dentist and obtained a Master of Dentistry in the specialization field of Oral Pathology in 1988. In 1996 he became Head of Department. Prof Van Heerden completed his PhD in 1997 followed by a DSc in 2003.
He was Elected to the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2005 and was Elected as one of the University of Pretoria’s 100 Leading Minds over the past century in 2008. Prof Van Heerden has Served on the Council of the International Association of Oral Pathologists and served as President of this Association in 2010 - 2012. He has received the University of Pretoria’s Education Innovation Award on two occasions and received the University’s Exceptional Academic Achiever Award for 12 years.
Prof Van Heerden's areas of Research include the oral manifestations of HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS-associated malignancies of the head and neck, potentially malignant lesions and oral cancer, high-resolution DNA flow cytometry of solid tumors and diagnostic histopathology of the head and neck.
He is still actively involved in diagnostic histopathology and has contributed more than 150 Publications to the Scientific Literature.
