Culture of South Africa originated in South Africa. The first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in December 1967. Max Theiler developed a vaccine against Yellow Fever, Allan McLeod Cormack pioneered x-ray Computed tomography, and Aaron Klug developed crystallographic electron microscopy techniques. These advancements were all (with the exception of that of Barnard) recognised with Nobel Prizes. Sydney Brenner won most recently, in 2002, for his pioneering work in molecular biology. Mark Shuttleworth founded an early Internet security company Thawte, that was subsequently bought out by world-leader VeriSign. South Africa has cultivated a burgeoning astronomy community.
Gertrud Theiler Africa, was named after Dr. Theiler in honor of the many years she dedicated to the collection. The argasid tick "Argas theilerae" (Hoogstraal and Kaiser, 1970), "Theiler's African white-backed vulture argasid," and the ixodid tick "Rhipicephalus gertrudae" (Feldman-Muhsam, 1960) were named to honor Dr Theiler for her many contributions to tick research. Theiler was the youngest daughter of Sir Arnold Theiler , founder and first director of the Veterinary Institute, Onderstepoort, and his wife, Emma Sophie Jegge; in 1971, she authored a biography of her father. She was a sister of virologist Max Theiler, who was awarded the 1951 Nobel