Speakers

Salim Safurdeen Abdool Karim

Place of Birth : Durban, South Africa
Position : Director, Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA); Special Advisor to the Director-General of the World Health Organisation; CAPRISA Professor of Global Health, Columbia University
Field of study : Clinical infectious diseases epidemiology, with a focus on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases, and their public health implications.

Professor Salim S. Abdool Karim is a distinguished South African clinical infectious diseases epidemiologist, renowned for his significant scientific contributions and leadership in the global response to AIDS and Covid-19. He directs the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and holds a Professorship of Global Health at Columbia University in New York. His expertise is further leveraged as a Special Advisor on pandemics to the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO). He is a highly cited scientist with over 500 peer-reviewed publications and has served on the editorial boards of prestigious medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Global Health, and Lancet HIV. His groundbreaking work has earned him numerous international accolades, such as the Lasker Prize, the Canada Gairdner Award, and Japan's Hideyo Noguchi Prize. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of both the US National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Microbiology.

• 1992-1999: PhD, University of Natal, South Africa
• 1989-1992: MMed (Community Health), University of Natal, South Africa
• 1989-1991: FFCH (Community Medicine), College of Medicine, South Africa
• 1987-1988: MS (Epidemiology), School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA
• 1985-1989: Diploma in Datametrics (Computer Science), University of South Africa
• 1978-1983: MBChB, University of Natal, South Africa

• 2023-Present: Special Advisor to the Director-General of the World Health Organisation
• 2016-Present: CAPRISA Professor of Global Health, Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University
• 2002-Present: Director, Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)