Dr. Shabir Madhi

Professor of Vaccinology

Co-Director, Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit

Chair, Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation in Vaccine Preventable Diseases

University of the Witwatersrand

Dr. Shabir A. Madhi holds the positions of chair in the Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation: Vaccine Preventable Diseases and co-director of the Medical Research Council: Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Dr Madhi is also currently President of World Society for Infectious Diseases (WSPID).In addition, he was a key investigator in the South African phase 3 pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) efficacy trial and is performing ongoing research in determining the optimal PCV schedules and the effectiveness of PCV in HIV-infected and HIV uninfected children. Dr. Madhi has served as a part-time consultant and on advisory committees of the World Health Organization and other international agencies in the field of pneumonia. He is a member of the South African National Advisory Group for Immunization, which successfully advocated for the introduction of PCV and rotavirus into the public national immunization program in South Africa, partly based on studies conducted by his unit on both of these vaccines. Dr. Madhi has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, with a particular focus on the epidemiology and prevention of pneumonia in children through vaccination.