Tapuwa Gracious Motsi

Tapuwa Gracious Motsi is a Zimbabwean radiation therapist pursuing an MSc in Radiobiology at the University of Oxford. She is a Mastercard Foundation Scholar and a member of St Edmund Hall.

Tapuwa graduated with top honours from the Harare Institute of Technology, where she ranked top of her class. Soon after completing her internship, she briefly worked as a teaching assistant in the Department of Therapy Radiography, where she mentored students and co-supervised undergraduate research projects.

She has been working as a radiation therapist in the clinical setting for the past two years at Oncocare Cancer Treatment Centre, a private radiation treatment facility. Through her work administering radiation treatment, she has interacted closely with cancer patients and supported them throughout treatment. Witnessing how patients react differently to radiation sparked her interest in delving beyond the treatment process and into research focusing on the effects of ionising radiation.

Tapuwa’s research work has been published across various platforms. Her undergraduate research, which focused on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the presentation patterns and management of breast cancer patients at Parirenyatwa Radiotherapy Centre, was published in the African Radiological Sciences, a Harare Institute of Technology-based journal. She has also contributed to two case reports published in the Medical Journal of Zambia, one as primary author and the other as co-author.

Through her MSc, Tapuwa plans to leverage the advanced training and resources she will obtain to address critical gaps in cancer research and management in Zimbabwe. Contributing to the body of knowledge in Zimbabwean research is of paramount importance, as her country tends to have limited published studies.

Beyond her academics, Tapuwa is an avid reader, dressmaker, and crocheter.