Marietjie Venter (PhD, Medical Virology, WITS, 2003) is the Director of the Centre for Emerging Arbo & Respiratory Virus Research, Department of Medical Virology, University of Pretoria, jointly appointed as co-director (Centre for Respiratory diseases and Meningitis, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa (2009–2014)) and One Health Program director (Global Disease Detection Centre (US-CDC), South Africa (2014–2016)). She joined the University of Pretoria full-time in 2016 as a full Professor and co-founded the Centre for Viral Zoonoses. She launched the Centre for Emerging Arbo & Respiratory Virus Research in 2023, continuing a One Health surveillance program on zoonotic arbo/respiratory viruses. She has >170 publications in this field (H index of 48 (Scopus)) and > 8900 scientific citations, and is a member of the Academy of Science, South Africa (ASSAf) (2021 onwards). She is the international One Health day contact for Africa and the Vice President (Africa) of the World Society for Virology (2020 onwards). She is also an advisor to the World Health Organization on Influenza and respiratory syncytial virus surveillance in the Technical Advisory group for arboviruses, and chairs the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, including COVID-19 (SAGO). She is on the Global One Health Community Scientific Advisory Board and will chair the organising committee for the 8th World One Health Conference (WOHC) in South Africa in 2024.