Richard Burman, 33, is pursuing one of medicine's most demanding balancing acts: caring for children in the operating theatre while pushing the frontiers of neuroscience in the laboratory. As one of South Africa's emerging clinician-scientists, he is determined to prove that world-class medical research can thrive alongside frontline public healthcare.

Based at Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital and the University of Cape Town (UCT), Burman is training in neurosurgery while building research programmes that tackle some of the field's most complex questions. His work explores the relationship between hormonal contraceptives and brain tumours in women, while advancing epilepsy surgery for children by improving understanding of seizure-causing brain circuits and expanding access to life-changing treatment.

A graduate of the UCT and the University of Oxford, where he completed a doctorate in neuroscience, Burman has been awarded the Mandela Rhodes and Shaun Johnson Memorial scholarships. His research has influenced the management of prolonged seizures in children and helped strengthen South Africa's neuroscience research capacity.

Burman credits a generation of clinician-scientists, including Professor Bongani Mayosi, Dr Matthew Amoni and Professor Graham Fieggen, with shaping his vision of leadership through collaboration. Rather than following established paths, he is committed to creating new ones, building research, training and clinical spaces where future generations of African scientists and surgeons can thrive.