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Prof Jamila K. Adam, KZN’s Pioneering Scientist

Prof Jamila K. Adam, KZN’s Pioneering Scientist

Professor Jamila Khatoon Adam, Head of DUT’s Biomedical and Clinical Technology Department, has made a significant contribution to medical science in South Africa over 30 years.

Now 65, she continues to empower aspirant young students.

Adam was born on August 8, 1951 and grew up in Overport, Durban. She went to St Aidan’s Primary School and matriculated from Durban Indian Girls’ High School with exemption in 1969. She realised while still at school that she wanted to study medicine and help people. So she studied physiology and microbiology at the University College for Indians on Salisbury Island, Durban (later University of Durban-Westville). “I had a passion for teaching and helping those in need,” she said, attributing her success to her parents putting in extra effort. “We didn’t have the means; it was the apartheid era and we had to go to different schools. It was very hard. I was the first in my family to go to university. My parents went out of their way for me. They supported me and made sure I had everything I needed. They sacrificed so much. If it had not been for them, I would not have been where I am today,” she said.

Adam did her first year on Salisbury Island and subsequently obtained her BSc honours degree at the new University of Durban-Westville in 1975, among the first women in the country to graduate with the degree. An opportunity arose while she was studying. “My lecturer in physiology wanted me to work in the department and didn’t want me to go into industry, so I took a job as a lab assistant, in charge of the animal room and the first electron microscope unit at our university. I did my honours while working part-time,” she said.

When a lecturer went on leave, she found herself lecturing students on the nervous system. “After a while I realised lecturing wasn’t enough. I wanted to do research and work with people too.” UDW was however not research-centred at that time. “I took a job at Natal University in the department of medicine. I enjoyed it because I got to work hands-on with patients.”

Her first research work involved lactose and its effects on malnourished patients. “I was involved in research on Medi-Feed and Ensure and found that Ensure was the better option.” Her research was published- which inspired her to register for her Master’s degree at Natal University. She had applied to ML Sultan Technikon two years previously and never heard back but now suddenly got a call asking if she would lecture in the department of clinical technology as another lecturer had gone on leave. Prof Adam seized the opportunity and although not guaranteed a permanent job, never looked back.

After joining the former ML Sultan Technikon (now DUT) in 1984, Adam has taught various subjects for many programmes. While working as a lecturer and researcher at the ML Sultan, Adam and a colleague, Shakeel Ori, who is currently the Director of Co-operative Education at DUT, formulated its first science faculty. After Technikon Natal and ML Sultan Technikon merged in 2002, DUT adopted this faculty concept. Eventually Adam headed DUT’s Biomedical and Clinical Technology Department and made history as the first full professor to be inaugurated in the health sciences faculty in 2015. No stranger to making history, Adam completed her master’s degree in medicine and nutrition at the University of Natal in 1992. “I met my husband, Professor Ahmed Sadeq Adam, while studying and working at UDW. After marrying, I had children and waited a while before completing my doctorate. No matter how busy I’ve been with my academic career, my family has always come first,” she said.

Prof Adam raised her four sons before completing her doctorate in clinical technology in 2005, in the process becoming the first woman in the country to obtain a doctorate in the field. Adam has since taken on many roles: scientist, supervisor of future scientists, role model and public intellectual. Being able to help the sick was her main goal and what prompted her to do research in clinical intervention, immunology, microbiology, histology, toxicology, applied physiology and nutrition. “My goal is for the graduates of the department to be recognised as leading clinical and biomedical researchers in their specialist fields, to provide patients with excellent care and
treatment,” she said.

To date, Adam has supervised the research projects of more than 500 Bachelor of Technology students and 55 post-graduate students from various institutions and departments around South Africa. Now an external examiner for post-graduate students nationally and internationally, she has served as vice-chairman of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) for 10 years. Adam made history again when another academic, Dr Rakesh Mohanlall, a former DUT student whose Master’s degree she supervised, became the first person in the world to achieve a doctorate in cardiovascular perfusion.

In her career, Adam has received numerous institutional and national research awards acknowledging her revolutionary status as a leader in South African medicine. Her awards include Top University Woman Researcher (2012), Top University Publisher of the Year (2012) and Faculty Researcher of the Year (2012). Up to 2013, she was the clinical technology programme co-ordinator and chaired the FRC and DRC. She received four academic awards in India in December 2012. She was invited to attend the Association of Biotechnology and Pharmacy’s sixth annual convention and international conference where she was bestowed with an international honorary fellowship award. Her most recent award, last year, was for having supervised the most research graduates at DUT. Though she has now retired from lecturing, Adam remains an integral part of the institution and its future. “I’m passionate about helping students, in any field. Anyone is welcome to come to me whenever they need help,” she said. Having lived a life full of accomplishments, Adam, the proud mother of four boys (two doctors and two chartered accountants), is now a grandmother of two with a third grandchild on the way.

– This edited article was published in the Tribune Herald.

Pictured: Professor Jamila Khatoon Adam.

Picture credit: DUT Communications

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