Professor Christine Maritz-Olivier is an associate professor in the Department of Genetics in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences since 2010. She obtained all of her degrees cum laude from the University of Pretoria in Biochemistry. During 2005-2010 she carried out postdoctoral research as a Wellcome Trust funded fellow in both South Africa and the Netherlands. Currently, her research focus on five pillars that forms an integrated platform for the control of ticks and tick-borne diseases.

Her research group is multidisciplinary with collaborators from USA, Spain, Australia, France, Czech republic, The Netherlands, Brazil, Portugal, Germany and the United Kingdom contributing. Prof Maritz-Olivier is co-initiator of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation cattle tick vaccine (CatVac) project and past President of the International Society of Tropical Veterinary Medicine. She is an active member of the International Veterinary Vaccine Network and the African Network for human and animal vaccines.

She has published 36 articles, two book chapters, two invention disclosures and one patent. Research findings have been presented at 53 national and 41 international conferences (10 invited speaker). To date, 32 BSc (Hons), 24 MSc and 8 PhD students have graduated under her direct supervision.