Quarraisha Abdool Karim, a South African epidemiologist has made seminal contributions to AIDS research that has highlighted the disproportionate burden of HIV in young women in Africa and demonstrated that antiretrovirals prevent sexually transmitted HIV infection and genital herpes in women that has informed international and national guidelines on HIV prevention.
She serves on several international advisory committees on HIV, sexual reproductive health and sustainable development and is on the editorial board of several journals and continues to enhance the science base in the Global South. She is currently President of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Fellow of the International Science Council, African Academy of Sciences (AAS), Academy of Science of South Africa and the Royal Society of South Africa. Among her over 40 distinguished awards she is a recipient of the: TWAS-Lenovo Apex Award; Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize; VinFuture Developing Country Innovator Award; John Dirks-Gairdner Global Public Health Award and the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award.
Professional position
- Associate Scientific Director, Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), University of KwaZulu-Natal
- Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
