Prof. Corrah joins INDEPTH Board

During the period under review, the Director of the Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF) Professor Tumani Corrah, joined the INDEPTH Board.

Prof. Corrah is also the MRC’s foundation Director of Africa Research Development and the first Emeritus Director of the Medical Research Council Unit (MRC), The Gambia. This provides Tumani with the ideal platform from which to work with partners to enhance research excellence by supporting talented researchers working on significant research challenges for health in west, central and eastern Africa.

 

Tumani Corrah’s role plays to his personal passion for growing a new generation of outstanding African researchers working in Africa. He is leading a new charity (AREF) that gives much-needed support to bright, early postdoctoral African scientists at the most vulnerable point in their careers. The charity aims to provide the foundation for these young scientists to compete and win grants, enabling them to continue their health research careers in Africa.

Tumani has over thirty years of progressively senior-level experience in a leading research institution in Africa – the MRC Unit in The Gambia. There, he rose through the ranks to the position of Unit Director, a position he held through many challenges for over ten years.

For three decades, Professor Corrah has retained active research interests in tropical and infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, HIV and malaria. He is medically qualified and holds a PhD from his studies on tuberculosis which included the ground-breaking science of the introduction of immunotherapy as an adjunct treatment for tuberculosis in The Gambia.

Other members of the INDEPTH Board are Prof. Marcel Tanner (Chair), Pali Lehohla (Deputy Chair), Prof. Abhijit Chowdhurry, Prof. Alemayhu Worku, Dr. Abdramane Soura, Prof. Nguyen Chuc, Dr. Josephine Odera , Prof. Mansur Oche, Prof. Peter Byass, Dr. Walter Otieno, Prof. Osman Sankoh (INDEPTH Executive Director) and Dr. Kofi Baku (Secretary).