The Faculty of Health Sciences at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) will award an honorary Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Health Sciences to South Africa’s leading epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist, Professor Salim Abdool Karim. The honorary doctorate will be conferred at 09h00 on the last day of the DUT 2023 Autumn Graduation ceremony, hosted at the Olive Convention Centre in Durban on Wednesday, 31 May 2023.
Prof Abdool Karim (63), from Durban, is the Director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and CAPRISA Professor for Global Health in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Prof Abdool Karim also serves as Adjunct Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard University, Boston, Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Cornell University, New York, and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. He is the former COVID-19 Advisory Committee Chairperson. He previously served as President of the South African Medical Research Council. In 2022, he was appointed as a Special Advisor on pandemics to the Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
DUT will acknowledge Prof Abdool Karim for his exceptional contributions in the global health environment and his outstanding service to humanity. Later on in the evening, Wednesday, 31 May 2023, the University will host a Celebratory Gala Dinner to honour Prof Abdool Karim.
As a distinguished health expert, Prof Abdool Karim has played a leading role in the HIV/AIDS and the COVID-19 pandemics. His expertise has extensively contributed to the HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, as well as the COVID-19 response, thereby saving many lives.
During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prof Abdool Karim was chosen to lead the 41-member Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19. This Committee provided guidance for the South African government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof Abdool Karim played a critical role of providing the public and the government with scientific advice on the coronavirus, how it causes COVID-19 and the measures of preventing infection. Prof Abdool Karim together with Dr Anthony Fauci, were honoured with the 2020 John Maddox Prize for “Standing up for Science”, acknowledging their critically important roles in the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the fight against HIV/AIDS, Prof Abdool Karim’s co-led research that provided the first evidence for antiretroviral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against HIV infection, was ranked among “The Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2010” by the journal Science. His clinical research on TB-HIV treatment has shaped international guidelines on the clinical management of co-infected patients. He is co-inventor on patents which have been used in several HIV vaccine candidates.
He attended the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s medical school in the late 70s while he was simultaneously studying Computer Science and Statistics at the University of South Africa. In 1983, he was awarded a Master’s degree focusing on Epidemiology at Columbia University in New York. He returned to the University of KwaZulu-Natal to complete his Master’s degree in Public Health Medicine and his PhD.
To date, the award-winning Professor Abdool Karim has published more than 500 journal articles, 12 book chapters, co-edited three books and holds six patents. He has been ranked amongst the world’s most highly cited scientists by Web of Science.
Pictured: Professor Abdool Karim.
Simangele Zuma
