OUTSTANDING RESEARCHER OF THE YEAR

Prof Houreld took up the position of lecturer at the University of Johannesburg in 2009 and moved through the academic ranks. She is a Research Professor at the Laser Research Centre within the Faculty of Health Sciences and is the Deputy Chairholder of SARChI Chair in Laser Applications in Health. She is the niche coordinator for wound healing research within the centre. Her research interests lie in the field of biophotonics, where she investigates the molecular and cellular effects of photobiomodulation on diabetic wound healing and laser-tissue interaction. 

Prof Houreld is a C1-rated scientist with a Scopus and Google Scholar h-index of 27. Prof Houreld’s contributions to the scientific development of the field of photobiomodulation have included over 100 scientific publications, which are all well-cited. Over the last five years, she has published 43 journal articles in high-ranking international journals and contributed towards five conference proceedings and seven book chapters. In 2021, Prof Houreld was listed in the world’s top 2% most widely cited scientists and has a five-year Field-Weighted Citation Impact of 1.42, which is 42% more than average. 

Her international standing and contribution to the field of photobiomodulation are well recognised, as is seen by her position on the executive committee of the World Association for photobiomodulation Therapy (WALT) since 2010, where she is the current president-elect. She also serves on the editorial board of the international journal, Photobiomodulation, Photomedicine, and Laser Surgery. She is currently a guest editor for a special issue, entitled Molecular Research of Photobiomodulation, in collaboration with the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, a Quantile 1 journal in the category of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. 

Prof Houreld has been invited to present several plenary/keynote lectures and other presentations at international conferences and workshops, reviews for several international journals, and serves as an external and panel reviewer for funding bodies and scientific agencies. Prof Houreld collaborates both nationally and internationally and has attracted external funding on an annual basis since 2011. She serves on various research-related university committees, where she is the Deputy Vice Chair of the Faculty Research Ethics Committee and is a senate representative on the Senate Research Ethics Committee. Prof Houreld has supervised numerous postgraduate students over the last five years, graduated five master’s students, of whom four graduated cum laude, three doctoral students, and four postdoctoral fellows.