Salim S. Abdool Karim, FRS, is Director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), Durban, and CAPRISA Professor of Global Health at Columbia University, New York. He is an 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 previously served as President of the South African Medical Research Council and as Chair of the South African Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19.
Professor Karim is a clinical infectious diseases epidemiologist widely recognized for scientific and leadership contributions in AIDS and Covid-19. He is currently serving as a Member of the Africa Task Force for Coronavirus, the African Union Commission on Covid-19 and the Lancet Commission on COVID-19. He serves on the Boards of several journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Global Health, Lancet HIV and mBio. He is the Chair of the World Health Organisation (WHO) HIV Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee as well as the WHO TB-HIV Task Force. He is a member of the WHO’s nine-member Science Council and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Global Health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. His awards include the African Union’s “Kwame Nkrumah Award” which is Africa’s most prestigious scientific award, the Kuwait Al-Sumait Award, the Canadian Gairdner Global Health Award and pinnacle awards from the African Academy of Sciences, Academy of Science in South Africa, Royal Society of South Africa and the South African Medical Research Council. He is member of the American Academy of Microbiology, US National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Professor Karim was part of the ISC’s Oversight Panel for the COVID-19 Outcome Scenarios Project.