This personal statement was updated on 2 September 2024. I am currently employed as a Principal Medical Scientist at the Centre for Enteric Diseases (CED), National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), in Johannesburg, South Africa. I have a 34-year employment history with this institution. I obtained my PhD in molecular microbiology from the University of the Witwatersrand in May 1996. I hold joint staff appointments with University of Pretoria (Extraordinary Professor) and University of the Witwatersrand (Senior Research Officer). I have a 'B2' rating with the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa; a rating category for 'researchers who enjoy considerable international recognition by their peers for the high quality and impact of their recent research outputs'. The CED is a reference centre in South Africa for human isolates of Salmonella species, Shigella species, Vibrio cholerae, Listeria monocytogenes and diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli. I am a steering committee member of PulseNet International - PulseNet is a molecular subtyping network for global enteric disease surveillance. My current activities include diagnosis, surveillance and epidemiology of enteric bacterial pathogens in South Africa. I lecture and teach on the application of molecular techniques in the microbiology laboratory, including techniques related to laboratory identification and characterization of bacterial enteric pathogens. These techniques include PCR, whole-genome sequencing and metagenomics. I am also involved with supervision of post-graduate students and training of intern medical scientists. My supervision of post-graduate students includes 8 PhD students and 17 MSc students. Most of my published work is listed at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1vGRCoG6Yfq/bibliography/public/