Prof. Sheetal Silal is the Director of the Modelling and Simulation Hub, Africa (MASHA) and Associate Professor in the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow in Tropical Disease Modelling at the Nuffield Department of Medicine at Oxford University. She received a PhD in Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases in 2014 from UCT. Her primary research area is the development and application of mathematical models to malaria, COVID-19, and other infectious diseases in South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and globally, with a focus on using mathematical models to predict the dynamics and control of diseases to evaluate the potential impact of control programmes in reducing morbidity and mortality, and supporting policy development.