Keynote Speaker - Professor Kevin Marsh
Kevin Marsh is a Professor of Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford and senior advisor at the African Academy of Sciences. He qualified in medicine at the University of Liverpool in 1978 and began his research career at the MRC Unit in the Gambia working on the immunology of malaria. In 1989 he established with colleagues a series of research projects on malaria in Kilifi on the Kenyan coast. These have subsequently developed into an international programme (the KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme) involving around 800 staff working across a number of countries in East Africa of which he was director until August 2014
Kevin has a particular interest in research capacity and scientific leadership in Africa and is currently supporting the development of a new platform for the acceleration of science in Africa through the African Academy of Sciences. He is chair of the WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Committee and is a member of a number of international advisory committees relating to global health research. He is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the African Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the Prince Mahidol prize for medicine in 2010, the Al Sumait prize for development in Africa in 2016 and the Drexel Prize for infectious diseases in 2017.
Journal Panelists
Emily Sena, Editor in Chief of BMJ Open Science, CCBS Research Fellow
Dr Sena's research focuses on the validity of preclinical studies. She is leader of the international CAMARADES collaboration and a key member of the Edinburgh CAMARADES group led by Professor Malcolm Macleod.
Elizabeth Thompson, Science Writer
Before joining the Kennedy Institute, Elizabeth worked for five years as a scientific editor at Cell Press, including at the journal Immunity. Her research background is in molecular biology and immunology and she trained at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre and Harvard Medical School.
She currently works as a science writer providing writing and editorial support to the Institute Director and Principal Investigators to help disseminate the Institute’s research and scientific mission.
Gemma Alderton, Senior Editor at Science
Gemma works as a Perspectives Editor for the journal Science, covering the areas of perspectives in biological sciences and biomedicine. She has previously worked for Nature Reviews Cancer as a senior editor and at Cancer Research UK
Richard Smith, Former Chief Editor of the BMJ
Richard is a trained medical doctor, editor and businessman. Currently he is director of the Ovations initiative, which works to combat chronic disease in countries such as China, Tunisia and Pakistan. Prior to this, he worked for the BMJ for 25 years, 13 of which as editor.