SA scientist a Royal fellow
WORLD-renowned Aids researcher and scientist, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, has been elected as a fellow of the prestigious Royal Society, the world’s oldest science academy.
Established in 1660 by Royal Charter, the society, which is based in London, has included many of the world’s leading scientists over the past four centuries – from Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin to Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
To qualify for a Royal Society Fellowship, an individual must have made a “substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical science”.
“I am deeply humbled by this honour. I am thankful to my many colleagues and collaborators who helped me achieve this. I hope it helps inspire more scientists in Africa to persevere in their pursuit of scientific excellence,” Karim said.
He is the director of the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (Caprisa), Caprisa Professor of Global Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
In South Africa, Karim is one of three current fellows of the Royal Society. He is the chairperson of the UNAids Scientific Expert Panel, chairperson of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on HIV and a member of the WHO TB-HIV Task Force.
SA Medical Research Council President Professor Glenda Gray said Karim had undertaken HIV-TB treatment research that had saved lives and developed new approaches to HIV prevention, focused particularly on young women in Africa, the group with the highest rates of HIV infection. |