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, Prof Salim Abdool Karim. The honorary doctorate will be conferred at 09:00 on the last day of the DUT 2023 Autumn Graduation ceremony, hosted at the Olive Convention Centre in North Beach, Durban, on Wednesday, May 31.
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 of 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).
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DUT will acknowledge Prof Abdool Karim for his exceptional contributions to the global health environment and his outstanding service to humanity. Later on in the evening of Wednesday, May 31, 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 Covid-19 pandemics. His expertise has extensively contributed to 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 in providing the public and the government with scientific advice on the coronavirus, how it causes Covid-19 and the measures for preventing infection.
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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 Prof 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.
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