About me
Hi! I am a pediatrician, scientist, strategist, educator and me thinks…an expert communicator.​
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I believe that people are the world’s most powerful resource. My vision is to “Make Malaria History” through vaccination. I also dream of an “Army of African Scientists”. Highly skilled individuals that will tackle Africa’s medical challenges, improving the physical and economic well-being of the continent. Health is Wealth!
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I love to simplify science, re-packaging it to suit a target audience. I am a career advisor, mentor and have a global footprint as a motivational speaker.
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I hope to inspire African men and women engaged internationally in science and leadership.
Keynote at the Falling Walls Conference in Berlin, Nov. 2019
Make Malaria History
My research programme has three broad themes:
1) vaccine candidate discovery
2) antibody correlates of protection
3) mechanisms of immunity
My research group is spread over two continents, at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya & at the Heidelberg University Hospital, in Heidelberg, Germany
Educating Scientists as key of change
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Training of African and international scientists
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FAIS Legacy Project- building a core of immunologists on the continent
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Active in International Capacity Building Initiatives: IDeAL, TIBA, WACCBIP
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Commitment as career advisor and motivational speaker
S.M.A.R.T - South-south Malaria Antigen Research parTnership
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Leading a Network of African and International scientists
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Archive of 10,000 serum samples and epidemiological data
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Goal: identifying correlates of protection against malaria & training African scientists
Speaking
TED talk: The key to a better malaria vaccine
TED 2018 - The Age Of Amazement,
Vancouver, Canada, April 2018
AUDIO
2014 Royal Society Pfizer Prize Seminar
Royal Society Pfizer Prize Seminar with Dr Faith Osier
October 2014
AUDIO
SciDevNet: Rolling out malaria vaccine research across Africa
The Royal Society in London, United Kingdom, 2014
I speak about:
- my Scientific Work
- Education and Careers
- Women in Science
- Science and Society
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Here is a speaking archive of where I have been speaking in the recent past.
1000 African immunologists in 10 years
NDM Oxford, September 2019
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Archive
Awards
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2020 TWAS-Abdool Karim Award – The World Academy of Sciences
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2020 100 Most Influential African Women by AvanceMedia
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2019 TOGETHERBAND Ambassador for UN Global Goal 3
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2018 TED Fellow – Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED), USA
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2016 Sofja Kovalevskaja Award – Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; Germany
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2014 Royal Society Pfizer Award – Royal Society, UK
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2014 5th Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award – Accordia Foundation, USA
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2014 1st EVIMalaR Promising African Scientist Award European Virtual Institute of Malaria Research
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2013 MRC/DfID African Research Leader Award
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Scientific Citizenship
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President of the IUIS - first African and second woman in this role
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Togetherband Ambassador for the UN
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Funding boards and expert committees - WHO, Wellcome, UKRI, MVIPath, BactiVac, among others
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Champion of the Malaria Must Die Campaign
