UCT drug pioneer in fine company on Fortune list
THE founder and director of Africa’s first integrated drug discovery centre‚ Professor Kelly Chibale‚ has been named one of Fortune magazine’s 50 World’s Greatest Leaders for this year.
Chibale‚ whose H3D centre at the University of Cape Town pioneers world-class drug discovery in Africa‚ has also become known for his pivotal work on malaria.
He was included in Fortune magazine’s annual list of “influential figures we admire most”.
Chibale shares the honour with leaders ranging from Bill and Melinda Gates to the presidents of France‚ Emmanuel Macron‚ and South Korea‚ Moon Jae-in‚ as well as tennis player Serena Williams‚ Apple chief executive Tim Cook and the #MeToo Movement.
Chibale said his inclusion on the list was “totally unexpected and overwhelming. I am so grateful to God for this recognition on the global stage”.
Fortune magazine said its list looked at all sectors of society to find leaders “who are using their power and influence to make the world a better place”.
Chibale was selected for his pioneering work in developing the infrastructure to support scientific research.
The Zambian-born scientist founded H3D at UCT in 2010 and officially launched it in 2011.
Starting out with a handful of researchers‚ he has grown H3D into a world-class centre‚ with more than 60 researchers in addition to about 30 postgraduate (MSc and PhD) research students and postdoctoral fellows in his academic group.
His team of more than 90 researchers work out of state-ofthe-art facilities at UCT, thanks to various partnerships including the Gates Foundation‚ Medicines for Malaria Venture‚ Novartis and the government.
H3D mainly works in the fields of TB and malaria and already has a potential drug for malaria in human trials.