Researchers

Professor Christine Lochner

E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: +27 21 938 9179

Dr Olivia Matshabane
BA, BA (Hons), MA, PhD

Dr Olivia Matshabane is a research psychologist and neuroethics researcher. Her work focuses on the ethical, legal, social, and cultural implications of neuropsychiatric genomics and the neuroethical implications of new and emerging neurotechnologies. She is the Principal Investigator on an African Academy of Sciences and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation seed grant focussed on neuroethics in Africa. She earned her PhD in Medicine from the University of Cape Town (UCT), her Master’s and Honours degrees in Psychology from Stellenbosch University (SU), and her Bachelors in Psychology from the University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa. Before joining the SAMRC Genomics of Brain Disorders Unit in the Department of Psychiatry at SU, she completed a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, where her work used social network analysis to investigate family communication patterns and stigma among families affected by a genomics-related neuropsychiatric disorder. Dr Matshabane is a member of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) Africa Working Group leadership committee. She is also the South Africa representative in the African Brain Data Network (ABDN) and the International Neuroethics Society (INS) representative to the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO). She is a member of the International Brain Initiative's (IBI) Cross-Cultural Neuroscience Working Group and she is also one of the 24 international expert scientists tasked to develop a recommendation on ethics of neurotechnology by UNESCO. Dr Matshabane also supervises postgraduate students in the Department.​​