Professor of Vaccinology and Director of the MRC Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Shabir Madhi is Professor of Vaccinology at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; and co-founder and co-Director of the African Leadership Initiative for Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE). Professor Madhi completed his undergraduate and postgraduate training at the University of the Witwatersrand, qualifying as a paediatrician in 1996 and obtaining his PhD in 2003.
He currently also holds the positions of Director of the South African Medical Research Council Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit and Research Chair in Vaccine Preventable Diseases of Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation. He served as the immediate-past Director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (2011-2017), and currently serves as the Chair of the National Advisory Group on Immunisation in South Africa.
He has co-authored over 400 scientific publications between 1997 and 2018 and has supervised 19 PhD students. His research has focused on the epidemiology and clinical development of lifesaving vaccines against pneumonia and diarrhoeal disease. More recently he has focused on vaccines being developed for immunisation of pregnant women for the benefit of the women and their young infants. His research has been pivotal for informing World Health Organisation recommendations on the use of the lifesaving pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, rotavirus vaccine and influenza vaccination of pregnant women.
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