Professor Shabir Madhi

Professor Shabir Madhi’s expertise is in the field of epidemiology and clinical development of vaccines against respiratory pathogens. He is the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand and the Director of the South African Medical Research Council Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit. He is internationally recognised for leading the first African vaccine studies against the leading causes of death in children from pneumonia and diarrheal disease, and for research on the epidemiology and clinical development of multiple vaccines targeted at protecting pregnant women, foetuses and young infants against vaccine preventable diseases. He led COVID-19 epidemiology studies and clinical development of COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa, including the first two vaccine safety and efficacy trials in Africa. His accolades include the SAMRC Platinum Medal Lifetime Achievement Award; ASSAf Science-for-Society Gold Medal, and the NSTF South-32 Lifetime Achievement Award. During the last eight years, he has authored/co-authored 370 publications and supervised 19 PhD students to completion.