People

Salim S. Abdool Karim, M.B.Ch.B, Dip.Data (computer science), M.S., M.Med, F.F.P.H.M., Ph.D., D.Sc.(hc) Salim S. Abdool Karim is a South African clinical infectious diseases epidemiologist who is widely recognized for his research contributions in HIV prevention and treatment. He is director of the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and CAPRISA professor of global health at Columbia University. He is also pro vice-chancellor (research) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and adjunct professor of medicine at Cornell University in New York. He has served as the president of the South African Medical Research Council and is an associate member of the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Harvard University. His clinical research on tuberculosis-HIV treatment has shaped international guidelines on the clinical management of co-infected patients. He was co-leader of the CAPRISA 004 tenofovir gel trial that provided proof-of-concept that antiretrovirals can prevent sexually transmitted HIV infection and herpes simplex virus type 2 in women. He is co-inventor on patents that have been used in several HIV vaccine candidates and in passive immunization strategies with broadly neutralizing antibodies. Abdool Karim is chair of the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel, WHO’s HIV Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee, and the WHO Tuberculosis-HIV Task Force. He serves on the boards of several journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Global Health, Lancet HIV, and mBio. He is a member of the Royal Society of South Africa, Academy of Science of South Africa, African Academy of Sciences, and the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the Association of American Physicians. His awards include the TWAS Prize in Medical Sciences, the African Academy of Science’s Olusegun Obasanjo Prize for Scientific Discovery and Technological Innovation, the Science for Society Gold Medal Award from the Academy of Science in South Africa, the Platinum Medal Lifetime Achievement Award from the South African Medical Research Council, and Columbia University’s Allan Rosenfield Alumni Award for Excellence. The African Union awarded him the Kwame Nkrumah Continental Scientific Award, the most prestigious scientific award in Africa.