Eric Bateman is a pulmonologist and clinician scientist and the founder of the University of Cape Town Lung Institute, which he served as Director for 16 years until 2016. He was the Head of the Division of Pulmonology at University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital from 1989 to 2012. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, a Life Fellow of the University of Cape Town, a founding Fellow of the European Respiratory Society and an honorary fellow of the South African Thoracic Society.
His primary research contributions have been in the pharmacology and management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and in the development of community-based interventions to improve the care of patients with chronic diseases, with a focus on low resource settings. He has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed papers, serves on the editorial boards of several international respiratory journals, and has been a invited visiting lecturer or professor at institutions and conferences in more than 60 countries.
Professor Bateman is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and previous chair and currently a member of both the Board and Science Committee of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA). He served as President of the South African Thoracic Society for three terms, and on the Executive of the Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD).