Prof Quarraisha Abdool Karim

Quarraisha Abdool Karim, (PhD) is an infectious diseases epidemiologist, co-founder and Associate Scientific Director of CAPRISA. She is Professor in Clinical Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York and Pro-Vice Chancellor for African Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Quarraisha is the President of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and is the UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV. She is the Executive Group Member of the Steering Committees for the WHO Covid-19 Solidarity Therapeutics Trial, the WHO Covid-19 Solidarity Vaccines Trial and the WHO Ebola Vaccine Trial. Quarraisha co-chairs the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10 Member Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM); is a member of the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board and serves on the Board of Directors of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (USA).  Her seminal research contributions spanning over three decades have shaped the global HIV prevention landscape, notably in prevention technologies for women. She demonstrated that ARVs prevent sexually transmitted HIV that laid the foundation for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP); and has provided insights in Africa and globally on the impact of Covid-19 on HIV and in the evaluation of Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics. Quarraisha has over 300 peer reviewed publications; edited several books, contributed several book chapters including co-editing the 6^th and 7^th edition of the Oxford Textbook on Global Public Health. She has played a central role in building the science base in southern Africa through the Columbia University - Southern African Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Programme that has trained over 600 scientists in southern Africa.  She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (USA), and Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, Academy of Science of South Africa and the African Academy of Science.