Marina Rautenbach completed her degree studies up to an MSc in Biochemistry (cum laude) at the University of Pretoria and my PhD degree at Stellenbosch University, one of the top three research universities in Africa and South Africa. She was appointed as one of the first female lecturers in Biochemistry at Stellenbosch University in 1990. She successfully set up a peptide synthesis facility and peptide research with very little funding and infrastructure, while lecturing and doing a "part-time" PhD degree. As funding was limited for young researchers in the 1990s, she started the BIOPEP Peptide Group in 1997 and with my entrepreneurial leadership BIOPEP has been operational for 25 years. The antigenic peptides that BIOPEP produces for a hepatitis C Virus ELISA kit, which is regarded as the most sensitive kit commercially available, has over the last 25 years contributed to testing of about 300 million patient samples in pathology laboratories worldwide. She is regarded as an authority on peptide biochemistry, and in particular antimicrobial peptides (AMPs). Her research focuses on AMP discovery and the basic understanding of their mode of action, structure-activity relationships and solution behavior. AMPs for application in functionalised antimicrobial materials and peptide/peptide-metal nano-formulations are selected from these studies. Apart from chemical synthesis of peptides, the BIOPEP Peptide Group also produces non-ribosomal AMPs (natural antimicrobials), specifically for sterilisation applications in the health sector, agriculture and industry. In recognition of her contribution to science in South Africa, she received the prestigious award of South African Distinguished Woman Scientist (Winner: Physical and Engineering Sciences) from the South African Department of Science and Technology in August 2014. She was the first woman and at Stellenbosch University to receive this award as winner since its inception in 2003.