Pedzisai  Mazengenya
  • Pedzisai Mazengenya

  • Associate Professor
  • Ext: 5328

Dr Pedzisai Mazengenya (BSc (Hons), MSc (UZ); PhD, PGDipHED (WITS)), is an Assistant Professor of Anatomy at Ajman University in the College of Medicine. He holds the BSc (intercalated Honours degree) and MSc degree in Anatomy from the University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe and PhD in Neurosciences and Postgraduate Diploma in Health Sciences Education from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Dr Mazengenya specializes in Human Anatomy teaching, a basic medical sciences course that is crucial to the learning and practice of Medicine. Previously, Dr Mazengenya worked at the following institutions as lecturer in Clinical Anatomy: University of Zimbabwe, College of medicine between the years 2007 to 2008; University of Zambia, College of Medicine in 2009 and The University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Health Sciences from year 2010 to 2018 and as a Senior Lecturer from 2018 to 2019. In total he has 14 years’ experience of teaching Clinical Anatomy. In addition, he worked as a Graduate teaching assistant and Teaching assistance (2003 -2007) at the University of Zimbabwe. Dr Mazengenya holds extensive knowledge in the Human Anatomy subject and he teaches across the three divisions of Anatomy namely: Histology, Gross Anatomy and Embryology. Dr Mazengenya is an active researcher in Human Anatomy and Anatomical Variations, particularly focusing on the anatomical bases for pathology, surgical practice, disease development and forensic anthropological investigations. In addition to Human Anatomy and variations, Dr Mazengenya researches on the History of Human Anatomy and its development over the past centuries particularly in the Arab and Moslem worlds. Recently, Dr Mazengenya have developed new research area in Neurosciences where he focuses on Adult Neurogenesis and Neuromodulation with the hope to address the impact of neurodegenerative diseases. Dr Mazengenya has a total 33 Scopus Indexed research publications in all the three research areas. Dr Mazengenya received 3 consecutive research awards from the University of the Witwatersrand (2017, 2018 and 2019). He is a recipient of 4 competitive international research travel grants and a single bursary from the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) and 2 Travel and Research fellowships to Advanced Neuroscience training from the International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) (during the years 2018 (Austria) and 2019 (Canada). In addition, he is an awardee of the Committee for Aid and Education in Neurochemistry (CAEN) grant from International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) and also Internal research grants from The University of the Witwatersrand and recently Ajman University. Dr Mazengenya has supervised 9 Honours degree students to completion, 6 MSc students (5 completed; 1 ongoing) and 2 PhD students (on going). Dr Mazengenya is an active member of International society for neurochemistry (ISN), Society for neuroscience in Africa (SONA), International brain research organization (IBRO) and Anatomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA).

Education
  • PhD Neurosciences (2018)- University of the Witwatersrand- South Africa
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Health Sciences Eduation (2021) -University of the Witwatersrand- South Africa
  • MSc Anatomy (2008)-University of Zimbabwe
  • BSc Anatomy (2005)-University of Zimbabwe
Teaching Area
  • Anatomy
Research
  • Skeletal Biology and Clinical Anatomy; History of Anatomy; Neurosciences
Publications
Conference Presentation
  • Mazengenya, P, Adult neurogenesis in the paleognathous birds: the common ostrich (Struthio camelus) and emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae)‘”. 47th Annual Anatomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA) Conference (2019) Pilanesberg, South Africa. (ORAL)
  • Mazengenya, P, Wide spread potential of adult neurogenesis in the brain of the Pied crow (Corvus Albus).46th Annual Anatomical Society of Southern Africa (ASSA) Conference (2018), Muldersdrift, South Africa (ORAL)
  • Mazengenya P, Expression of PCNA and DCX in the brains of adult Congo African grey and Timneh African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus and Psittucus rimneh) (2018), 2nd International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN-JNC) flagship school, Alpbach Austria
  • Mazengenya P. PCNA and DCX expression on the telencephalon of the male Japanese qual brain. 2018 Conference of the American Society for Neurochemistry, Riverside, California (POSTER).
Memberships, Awards and Honors
  • ISN, ASSA, IBRO