Dr Marise Heyns

Overview

Dr Marise Heyns joins Ulster University Medical School as Senior Lecturer in Anatomy, a discipline in which she has more than 25 years of experience in teaching and research. Marise is the Lead for Year 1 of the MBBS programme and  also the Academic Lead for Health and Safety.

Marise started her career with a PhD degree in Zoology before lecturing gross anatomy with dissection to medical, dental, nursing and paramedical students. She was employed for 2 years at University of Pretoria medical school in South Africa, followed with 7 years at University of the Western Cape. During this period she completed a MBA at University of Stellenbosch Business School, graduating cum laude as the top student, and was awarded the Director’s award for academic achievement and leadership.

She then spent 7 years at Queens University Belfast, where she taught Anatomy to medical and science students. She was awarded a QUB Teaching Award for Excellence in Teaching First Year Students, and also conducted research into Medical Education as well as Professionalism. Her exposure to forensics and the reality of crime in South Africa prompted her to return to South Africa, fuelled with the drive to contribute to the fight against crime and specifically the training of forensically qualified postgraduate students in order to generate research and knowledge in the field of forensics.

She was the driving force behind the highly successful Biomedical Forensic Science programmes at University of Cape Town, and worked closely with the Forensic Pathologists in one of the busiest mortuaries in South Africa. She also established CapeFORTE within the Forensic Entomology Unit at UCT, a laboratory that offers specialised forensic entomological and taphonomic analysis services to the Western Cape Forensic Pathology Services, providing valuable information on Post Mortem Interval and the circumstances surrounding death in cases where individuals are in a state of decomposition or the remains skeletonised.