Lise Korsten

Lise Korsten is a South African Professor at the University of Pretoria who is an expert in plant pathology. In 2024, she became the first woman to lead the African Academy of Sciences.

Life Korsten was born in about 1959. She attended Floridase Hoërskool in Gauteng before studying at Stellenbosch University and the University of Pretoria.

African Academy of Sciences In August 2023, she became the first woman to lead the African Academy of Sciences, She leads the academy's governing council of ten people and three of these Jane Catherine Ngila, Rajaâ Cherkaoui El Moursli and Peggy Oti-Boateng who was the executive director from 2022 are also women. She will be president until 2026. Kortsen had taken over the leadership of the academy after a difficult period. The academy had found that its staff and budget had grown to 60 staff controlling $250m supported by the Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Internal disagreements led to the loss of the academy's financial supporters. Korsten and her executive secretary had to re-establish the academy's role.

She is also a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.

Her research Korsten's research includes the regulation of food and she takes an interest in South African Law. She has argued for a body to be appointed that would oversee food consumption. Later that year she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Ghent University.

In 2025, the National Science and Technology Forum recognised her work with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Selected publications