Prof. Lise Korsten is currently the Co-Director within the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), National Research Foundation (NRF) Centre of Excellence Food Security in Pretoria, South Africa. She is responsible for the food safety research program within the Centre. Prof. Korsten has focused her research mainly on complementary fields of postharvest pathology, plant health and food safety as related to fresh produce, market access and international trade. Prof. Korsten has addressed the South African Parliament on the development of a national food safety authority and has developed a national food control framework and country profile to enhance regulation and control. She has trained 87 MSc and PhD and 60 BSc Hons postgraduate students and has published more than 200 peer reviewed papers, chapters or books and 150 popular papers. She currently has an H-Index of 50 and i10-index of 154 and has been cited 10387 times and counts within the top 2% of scientists in the specified subject field among the scientists in the AD Scientific Index in the World (https://bit.ly/3iwFsio). In recognition of some of her work she has received the Water Research Commission: Winner of the Human Capital Development Award in the Water and Science Sector and the MT Steyn prize from the South African Academy of Science. She is an elected Fellow of the South African Society for Plant Pathology and of the Academy of Science of South Africa. She is also involved in the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) in several sub committees i.e., Capacity Building, Education and Outreach. Prof. Korsten is also a senior editor for the Springer journal Crop Protection, an associate editor for CABI Agriculture and Bioscience, Frontiers Horticulture and Nature Africa. She chairs the International Society for Plant Pathology Task Force on Global Food Security. Prof. Korsten was previously the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the African Research Initiative for Scientific Excellence (ARISE). She is currently the newly elected President of the African Academy of Science. Her vision is to transform the Academy to a more inclusive, representative, gender balanced, globally recognised leading academy and champion for sciences and excellence on the continent.