Professor Salim Abdool Karim Receives UKZN Fellowship Award

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The Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) Director and University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Professor Salim Abdool Karim was one of four prominent academics in the April 2016 graduations to receive the UKZN Fellowship Award for research excellence and distinguished academic achievement.

Professor Abdool Karim’s research contributions have been recognised nationally and internationally through several awards including the Drug Information Association’s “President's Award for Outstanding Achievement in World Health”, and the “Science for Society Gold Medal Award” from the Academy of Science in South Africa.

In June 2014, he was conferred an Honorary Doctorate (DSc.) in Medicine by the University of Cape Town. More recently, he was awarded the Platinum Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the South African Medical Research Council, John F. W. Herschel Medal from the Royal Society of South Africa, the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Biomedical HIV Prevention Forum of Nigeria, the US Science and Technology Pioneers Prize (awarded to the CAPRISA 004 team) from US Agency for International Development and the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Continental Scientific Award.

Professor Abdool Karim’s global leadership in HIV-TB treatment and prevention is illustrated by his roles in several national and international committees and advisory groups. He has advised several governments and the world’s leading agencies in AIDS and global health such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

He has undertaken numerous reviews of research organisations, including the review of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC’s) intramural AIDS Research Program and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC’s) Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS research programme. He is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, Royal Society for Science in South Africa, African Academy of Sciences and the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He is a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Science (previously the Institute of Medicine) and a member of the American Academy of Microbiology.

Few researchers in Africa, or globally, have been as influential and have had impact of such major consequence on both HIV treatment and prevention. He also has a proven track record in establishing and leading research organisations. For his marked global impact on the fight against AIDS and TB, the University honoured Professor Abdool Karim with the award of Fellow of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

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