Sam Kinyanjui

I am the director of the Initiative to Develop African Research Leaders (IDeAL) and head of training and capacity building at the KEMRI-Wellcome Research Programme. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Zoology from the University of Nairobi, subsequent to which I undertook a PhD in immunology at the Weatherall institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford University. Although I maintain a research interest towards malaria vaccine development, over the last 15 years or so I have focused on building of local capacity for health research in Africa. During this period I have raised and managed over $15 million for capacity building as the primary recipient and over $35 million as a co-recipient. With this fund I have supported high-quality research training for over 1000 individuals including over 80 PhD, 150 Master and nearly 400 undergraduate and graduate interns and in addition led the establishment of cutting-edge molecular biology lab at Pwani University (the Pwani University Biosciences Research Center - PUBReC) in 2017. For my efforts, I have also received several local and global acclaims including the 2019 Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (UK) Chalmers Medal and the KEMRI Director award for outstanding contribution to science and leadership in 2020. I sit on the advisory boards and management committees of many research and capacity building consortia such as the MIT Broad Institute and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health - Neuropsychiatric Genetics of African Populations (NeuroGAP) Studies, WHO Global Coordination Mechanism for Research and Development to prevent and respond to epidemics, WHO-TDR Ad hoc Committee on TDR Global Community, Oxford University– African Collaboration, Sub-Saharan African Network for TB/HIV research Excellence (SANTHE), and Makerere University -Uganda Virus Research Infection and immunity network (MUIIplus).