Professor Wassenaar is the Professor of UKZN’s School of Applied Human Sciences, Discipline of Psychology, Pietermaritzburg campus. He also serves as chair of the University’s Biomedical Research Ethics Committee and South African Human Sciences Research Council's Research Ethics Committee. 

He is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the US NIH-funded South African Research Ethics Training Initiative and Co-PI of the UKZN Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI). 

He serves on the World Health Organisation/UNAIDS Vaccines Advisory Committee and is a member of the interim steering committee of the Global Forum for Bioethics in Research.  

Professor Wassenaar is responsible for a programme of the MEPI grant that trains selected UKZN staff and postgraduate students in research ethics.