Dr Mohamed Ezzat El Zowalaty studied pharmaceutical sciences and graduated with first class excellent grades with honors in May 2000. He was awarded a scholarship as a visiting scholar in the Department of Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina, USA in 2006 where he studied effect of sweeteners on gut microbiota in mice. He completed his Masters degree in microbiology in 2008 and he investigated bacterial drug resistance and mechanisms of multiple drug resistance among clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Dr El Zowalaty was awarded a scholarship to the USA and he completed his doctoral research work studying virology specifically avian influenza surveillance in the Midwest region of the United States where he worked in the department of Veterinary Population Medicine and the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. Following completion of his doctoral degree in 2011, he was awarded a governmental highly competitive and prestigious postdoctoral scholarship from the Malaysian government, Institute of Bioscience, University Putra Malaysia where he conducted his postdoctoral training in microbiology and virology. In 2013, he was appointed as an assistant Professor of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in the Faculty of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Jazan University. In 2013, Dr. EL Zowalaty was awarded a short-term fellowship from the Academy of Medical Sciences in London, U.K. where he joined the Cell and Molecular Biology laboratory in the Postgraduate Medical Institute, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, U.K and he focused on molecular diagnostics and real time PCR in diagnosis of infectious diseases. More recently in 2014, he was awarded a short term visit research fellowship at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, where he was joined a project on the development of universal influenza vaccines using virus like particles. In 2016, he was appointed as an honorary associate research professor and in May 2017, he joined UKZN as a full time research associate professor of virology and microbiology in the School of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa Dr Zowalaty is passionate about virology, virus pathogen discovery, virome and microbiome analysis, zoonotic pathogens including but not limited to influenza viruses, coronaviruses, and Newcastle disease virus. In addition, he carries out research as a diagnostic virologist and microbiologist with subject matter expertise in zoonotic infections, virus isolation, surveillance, diagnosis, antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial nanotechnology and nanoantibiotics. Dr El Zowalaty is elected as a full member of the American society for Virology since 2011 besides he is an editorial board member of several virology and microbiology scientific journals. Dr Zowalaty has significantly contributed to the field of veterinary and medical virology and microbiology and he has published more than 35 peer reviewed high quality scientific articles in well known ISI reputable journals besides his international invited lecturers in the US and Europe as well as the Middle East in prestigious international conferences and scientific meetings. Dr Mohamed Ezzat El Zowalaty proved remarkable achievements on different academic aspects including research, postgraduate student supervision and mentorship, and teaching.

Virology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases