Position: Associate Scientific Director, CAPRISA & Professor in Clinical Epidemiology, Columbia University

Quarraisha Abdool Karim, (PhD) is an infectious diseases epidemiologist and co-founder and Associate Scientific Director of CAPRISA. She is Professor in Clinical Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York and Pro-Vice Chancellor for African Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Abdool Karim is the President of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).

Prof Abdool Karim is the UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV. She is the Executive Group Member of the Steering Committees for the WHO Covid-19 Solidarity Therapeutics Trial, the WHO Covid-19 Solidarity Vaccines Trial and the WHO Ebola Vaccine Trial. Abdool Karim co-chairs the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10 Member Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM); is a member of the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board and serves on the Board of Directors of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (USA).   Prof Abdool Karim is Deputy-Chair of the WHO Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health; the Scientific Advisory Board Member of the Indlela: Behavioural Insights for Better Health and Member of the CAPRISA Board of Control.

Prof Abdool Karim’s research over the past 34 years has focused on preventing HIV infection in adolescent girls and young women. This includes the conduct of clinical trials from early phase, through proof of concept and implementation of new discoveries. Her landmark study, the tenofovir gel CAPRISA 004 trial, demonstrated for the first time that anti-retrovirals can prevent HIV infection. The study was highlighted by the journal Science as one of the top 10 scientific breakthroughs in 2010.  Abdool Karim has over 300 peer reviewed publications; edited several books, contributed several book chapters including co-editing the 6^th and 7^th edition of the Oxford Textbook on Global Public Health. She has played a central role in building the science base in southern Africa through the Columbia University – Southern African Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Programme that has trained over 600 scientists in southern Africa.

She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (USA); and Fellow of The World Academy of Science, Royal Society of South Africa, Academy of Science of South Africa and the African Academy of Science. She is a South African National Research Foundation A1 rated scientist.

Prof Abdool Karim’s scientific contributions in highlighting the vulnerability of young women, the need for women-initiated technologies and integration of HIV prevention efforts into sexual reproductive health services has been recognised by more than 30 local and international awards including South Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe, from the President of South Africa, the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award; the Christophe Mérieux Prize from the French Academies of Sciences; and the 500 years of the Straits of Magellan Award from the Chilean government and the 4th Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Research from the government of Japan.

She has received honorary doctoral degrees (Honoris Causa) from the University of Johannesburg (2017), the University of Stellenbosch (2020), Rhodes University (South Africa) and MacMaster University (2022) in Ontario, Canada.

She is a Living Legend for the City of Durban – an honour bestowed by the city for citizens who have made an exemplary contribution to increase the profile of the city nationally and internationally.

Former President of the Republic of Mozambique

Born in 1939, 22 October (Malehice, Mozambique) Joaquim Alberto Chissano studied medicine in 1961, in Portugal but was forced to flee because of his political activism. In Tanzania, he became a founding member of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO). Chissano played a fundamental role in the 1974 negotiations on the independence of Mozambique, between FRELIMO and the Portuguese Government, taking office as prime minister of the transitional government. When Mozambique became independent on 25 June 1975, Chissano was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. With the tragic death of President Samora Machel in 1986, Chissano was elected as his successor.

He led positive socio-economic reforms, culminating with the adoption of the 1990 constitution that led Mozambique to the multi-party system and to an open market. Chissano also led successful negotiations with former rebels, ending 16 years of a destabilizing war in 1992. In 1994, he won the first multiparty elections in the history of his country, and was re-elected in 1999. Despite being permitted to do so by the constitution, he voluntarily decided not to stand in the 2004 presidential elections.

Chissano has served as Chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Chairperson of the African Union. After retiring from office, he was appointed Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2005 Summit to Review the Implementation of the Millennium Declaration, as well as Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to Guinea-Bissau, and to the LRA-affected areas and from June 2009, as SADC Mediator for Madagascar. He also led the Comité des Sages deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to create an enabling environment for the first multiparty democratic elections in that country.

Currently, he is the Chairperson of the Joaquim Chissano Foundation (aims: peace promotion, social and economic development and culture), and of the Africa Forum of Former African Heads of State and Government. Chissano is a member of the board of the Peace Parks Foundation, Club of Madrid, The Hunger Project, and International Crisis Group. He is Goodwill Ambassador for CPLP (Portuguese Spoken Countries Community) and Global Partnership Initiative Youth Ambassador. President Chissano is also member of the Advisory Council of the World Food Prize Foundation, member of the High Level Task Force for the Climate Services at the World Meteorology Organization, member of the UNCTAD Panel of Eminent Persons, member of the Advisory Panel for Global Development at the Melinda & Gates Foundation, and, a member of the High-Level Taskforce for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). He has received the highest awards from many countries and has received several prizes, including the inaugural Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership in 2007.