Professor Viness Pillay obtained his Master of Pharmacy (cum laude) from the University of Durban-Westville (South Africa) in 1996. His PhD was completed at Temple University (USA) as a Fulbright Scholar in 2000. He is currently a South African National Research Foundation Chair in ‘Pharmaceutical Biomaterials and Polymer-Engineered Drug Delivery Technologies’, a Personal Professor of Pharmaceutics and Executive Director of the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) (http://www.wits.ac.za/waddp).  The WADDP is funded by the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), Medical Research Council, National Research Foundation, and several other prestigious grant funders. The WADDP encompasses the development of commercializable drug delivery technologies that provide ingenious solutions to the limitations of current pharmaceutical drug products used for treating many diseases that contribute to the immense public health afflictions in Africa and globally. Prof. Pillay is a pioneer of drug delivery research on the African continent and has been awarded a Center of Excellence from the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation in ‘Advanced Drug Delivery Technology’. He is a member of several prestigious academies that include the Academy of Science of South Africa, American Chemical Society, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, New York Academy of Sciences, Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences of South Africa and The Biomaterials Network. He also served as an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics at Florida A&M University (USA). His research in the USA led to a granted US patent for the development of a monolithic controlled release tablet that was licensed to a US pharmaceutical company and currently provides benefit to patients globally. Prof. Pillay is an author of more than 100 publications, over 10 book chapters and an inventor of more than 25 filed PCT patents. He is the brainchild behind the RapiDiss Wafer technology for treating infectious diseases in pediatrics.