Benita Olivier

About

Benita Olivier is a Professor of Rehabilitation in the Department of Sport, Health Sciences and Social Work at Oxford Brookes University, and a clinical-academic at the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom. Benita is the co-director of the Healthy Living Research Centre under the Oxford Institute of Applied Research (OxInAHR) and the Director of the Wits Cricket Research Hub for Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She is an avid researcher with a high level of research productivity aimed at enabling others to enjoy the health benefits of physical activity, exercise and sport. Her research interests are especially sparked by her quest to reduce injury risk in sports, specifically in cricket. She established the Wits Physiotherapy Movement Analysis Laboratory in 2010 and has molded it into a lab that advocates research excellence. In 2013, she completed her PhD in cricket fast bowling injury prevention. In 2019, she graduated with distinction with a second masters in Movement Analysis through the University of Dundee, United Kingdom. Her contribution to scholarship and academic citizenship is visible in many spheres including publication and postgraduate supervision. Benita is also the founder of the Research Masterminds Success Academy, a membership that supports postgraduate students to achieve their goals. She is a South African National Research Foundation-rated researcher, and her passion for research and creating impact, what she often refers to as “changing the world”, has been recognised through awards such as the Wits Health Consortium’s Great Leap Forward Entrepreneurial Academic and Inspiring 50 SA awards in 2021, the Department of Science and Innovation-SARIMA Early Career Excellence Research Management Award and the Johannesburg Women in Sports Confederation President’s Award in 2020. She was a finalist of the TW Kambule-NSTF Emerging Researcher Award in 2020 and was second runner up in the Department of Science and Technology’s Distinguished Young Woman in Science award in 2018. She was chosen as member of the prestigious South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS) in 2017. In 2014, Benita was the recipient of the Claude Leon Merit Award, the Friedel Sellschop Award for exceptional young researchers. As a wife and mother, she aspires to live a balanced life, with a strong sense of integrity and a drive to positively contribute to the lives of others on a daily basis.

Employment

• Oxford Brookes University Professor of Rehabilitation
  2023 - Present
• University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg Professor
  2020 - 2023
• University of the Witwatersrand Associate Professor
  2016 - 2020
• University of the Witwatersrand Senior lecturer
  2014 - 2016
• University of the Witwatersrand Faculty of Health Sciences Lecturer
  2008 - 2014

Education

Education history is unavailable.

Projects & Funding

Projects & funding information is unavailable.

Publications

Publications are unavailable.