Dr. Nokuthula Mchunu is the Deputy Director at the African Open Science Platform, which is hosted by the National Research Foundation in South Africa. With extensive expertise in academic outreach initiatives, science popularization, and the implementation of STEM activities within local communities, she previously served as a senior researcher at the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa in the Biotechnology Platform. Dr. Mchunu earned her doctoral degree in fungal genomics and spent over 15 years as a senior scholar in the Department of Biotechnology at Durban University of Technology.