Professor Linda-Gail Bekker is the Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town and Chief Executive Officer of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation. She is an NRF A-rated physician scientist and infectious disease specialist.
Her research interests include programmatic and action research around antiretroviral roll out and TB integration, prevention of HIV in women, youth and MSM. She has led numerous investigator-driven studies in HIV treatment, prevention and tuberculosis. Bekker lead a number of COVID19 vaccine trials including the Sisonke Phase 3B study which has seen the vaccination of 500 000 health care workers in South Africa.
She is a past president of the International AIDS Society (2016-2018) and served as the International Co-Chair of the 9th IAS Conference, the 22nd International AIDS Conference, and the 2021 Research 4 Prevention Conference.