Ed Rybicki PhD, MSc, FRSSA

Professor Edward Rybicki’s work in the fields of molecular virology and plant and vaccine biotechnology has established him as a research leader. His work offers potential benefits to the agricultural sector as well as for human and animal health, particularly in the areas of influenza, HIV and HPV, and animal orbivirus and circovirus vaccines. He obtained his BSc, Honours, Master’s and PhD degrees in Virology from UCT, where he is currently Director of the Biopharming Research Unit and Professor in Microbiology.

He was a visiting scientist at Cornell University and Arizona State University and a CIBA Foundation Scholar at the Rothamsted Agricultural Institute in the UK. Since 2009 he has published 90 papers in journals such as the Plant Biotechnology Journal and Nature Scientific Reports and holds 17 patents, mainly for vaccine-related products. He has served as editor for Archives of Virology and the Virology Journal. He received various awards including the Meiring Naudé Medal from the Royal Society of South Africa and the Silver Award for Exceptional Research from the SA Society for Microbiology.