Marissa Rollnick (ORCID IS:0000-0002-9543-8683) is professor emeritus in science education at Wits University. She holds a doctorate in science education and is a specialist in academic development and science education. Her professional career includes appointments as science and maths teacher, teacher educator (Eswatini), lecturer and professor in chemistry and chemistry education on access programmes and subsequently teacher education at Wits University and science education research at Wits University. She has had visiting appointments at University of York, UK, Western Michigan University (Fulbright award), USA and UCT. She is currently also working at the Univerisities of Pretoria and Johannesburg. Areas of research and publications include language in science education, student access to science in higher education and pedagogical content knowledge. She has over 70 refereed publications.

Amongst the awards received are the distinguished contribution to research award from NARST(USA), a long-service award from SAARMSTE, and the chemical education medal from SACI.

Her research interests include Science and Society and using contextualized teaching approaches. The theoretical approaches she uses to teaching and learning rely on the role of understanding to make learning meaningful. Currenlty the public and specifically young people will not adopt safe practices unless they understand the underlying scientific principles.