Tropical Medicine in Kenya

Malaria is a major problem for children in Africa. Over the last 10 years there has been a massive international investment for malaria control. This has driven major changes in the delivery of new drugs, ways of preventing malaria and also the basic research that aims to develop vaccines.

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Kevin Marsh is a malariologist and global health researcher who has spent over 30 years living and working in Africa. His major research interests focus on immunity to and pathogenesis of malaria. He qualified in medicine at the University of Liverpool in 1978 and began his research career at the Medical Research Council Unit in the Gambia. From 1985-89 he was at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford and in 1989 established with colleagues a series of research projects on the immunology and clinical epidemiology of malaria at Kilifi on the Kenyan coast. A long term aim of the programme was to establish the capacity for high quality multidisciplinary research. The KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme has subsequently developed into an international programme with around 800 staff working across a number of countries in east Africa of which he was director until August 2014. Kevin Marsh has a particular interest in developing and strengthening science and scientific leadership in Africa and has sponsored or supervised over 40 research fellows and doctoral students. From 2014, he led the development of the concept for a major new platform, the Alliance for the Acceleration of Science in Africa (AESA) which in 2022 transitioned to a free standing Pan African Organisation, The Science for Africa Foundation (SFA), of which he is a founding director. He was chair of the WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Committee from 2012-2019 and is a member of many international advisory committees relating to malaria and to global health research. In 2016 he led the establishment of the Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx) a cross disciplinary platform to build equitable links with African researchers, of which he is now co director. He is fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the African Academy of Sciences and the World Academy of Sciences and was awarded the Prince Mahidol prize for medicine in 2010 and the Al Sumait prize for development in Africa in 2016.