Dr Bradley Segal heading to Oxford as Rhodes Scholar-elect
- Wits Alumni Relations
Medical doctor and engineer sets sights on solutions for healthcare in low-resources settings.
Dr Bradley Segal (MBBCh 2021, MSc Eng 2022) is among the 10 scholars from Southern Africa to be awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in 2024.
Ten Rhodes Scholarships are awarded annually in Southern Africa, comprising South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia and eSwatini. Dr Segal will join a further 90 international students in Oxford, who will make up the Class of 2024. The Rhodes Scholarship offers young, emerging academics a life-changing opportunity to pursue full-time postgraduate study at one of the world’s leading academic institutions.
"The opportunity is quite a big one for me," says the 26-year-old from Johannesburg. "I've been working both as a medical doctor and in the health-data-science and machine-learning space. This is me effectively shifting to the data side of things. It is quite a substantial career transition."
Dr Segal will be focused “on pragmatic solutions for healthcare challenges” and he has contributed to digital health projects, particularly in low-resource environments. His expertise in AI, machine learning, and 3D printing underscores his commitment to practical and accessible healthcare advancements.
"My academic background is a bit unusual," he admits. "I went into undergraduate medicine directly from high school but had always enjoyed programming and technology. I ended up doing a substantial amount of self-directed studying and online courses in the programming space. This eventually led to me becoming involved with Wits' Biomedical Informatics and Translational Sciences Department with Michael Klipin (BSc 1989, BSc Hons 1990, MBBCh 1994) and the Biomedical Engineering Department with Adam Pantanowitz (BSc Eng 2007, BSc Eng 2008, MSc Eng 2022, PhD 2022) and David Rubin (MMed 2002). They all supported me in pursuing an MSc concurrently with medicine despite the fact that I didn't have an undergraduate degree at that point.
"I ended up graduating from medicine and engineering simultaneously in 2021. As far as I'm aware, I'm the only person to have done this particular route through medicine. A number of students do start in biomedical engineering and move into medicine, however, through the graduate medical programme."
Dr Segal says his experience of Wits has been largely positive, but his path has not been without obstacles: "My primary exposure was through medicine which gave me a strong theoretical underpinning as well as great clinical exposure. Registering for two degrees at once was admittedly asking for forgiveness more than permission."
In 2020 the Health Sciences Faculty requested he unenroll from engineering. The email was missed due to lockdown. "I left it unresolved until I graduated from both," he says.
As a result future graduates will benefit from the path Dr Segal has forged: "I think the faculty has shifted to create opportunities for intersectionality through the expansion of programmes within medicine. I've been involved in some of these discussions and am quite excited to see what types of students these programmes will produce."
Witsies Michael Beukman (BSc 2021, BSc Hons 2022) and Akudziwe Mawere (MBBCh 2022) were awarded the prestigious scholarship for 2023.
*This article was updated on 23 November 2023.