Dr Jean Dam

Jean joined H3D in August 2018 as Chief Scientific Officer. She obtained her BSc and BSc(Hons) with distinction in Chemistry from the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS).

Thereafter, Jean began her MSc in Organic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof Charles de Koning and Dr Moira Bode at WITS in 2012. After promising early results this was converted to a PhD and during this time she was awarded a Carnegie Corporation funded fellowship (part of the Southern African Biochemistry and Informatics for Natural Products network). Her research involved the design and development of novel anti-cancer compounds as well as novel synthetic methodology to access naturally occurring scaffolds and her PhD was awarded in 2016.

Jean was then awarded a two year International Postdoctoral Fellowship by the National Research Foundation to further build her synthetic skills. The research focused on complex natural product synthesis of Salvanorin A from at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio under Prof Craig Forsyth. Trading snow for sea, she is now working as an Investigator on the MMV malaria research project.