Janet Hemingway announced as RSTMH President, alongside Medals and Awards ceremony

Thank you to Professor Gail Davey, who steps down after her one-year term and becomes Past President. Simon Bush now becomes our President-elect and Professor David Mabey starts his terms as Vice President.

Also, a few of our Trustees have finished their terms of office and are stepping down – we thank all of them for their huge contributions to the Society.

Those leaving the RSTMH Board are:

• Professor Wendy Harrison
• Professor Sharon Cox
• Professor Malcolm Molyneux
• Professor Chris Parry

Professor Jimmy Whitworth and Sarah Rafferty have had their terms extended by two and three years, as elected and appointed Trustees, respectively.

We welcome six new Trustees to our Board, two appointed and four elected.

Professor Oulefemi Adewole and Dr Buddha Basnyat were appointed by our Trustees for their knowledge and experience of in countries endemic to the diseases we focus on.

Olufemi Adewole is a professor of medicine, a physician and pulmonologist, a social innovator and a global health enthusiast from Nigeria. As he starts his new Trustee role, he steps down as one of our two Country Ambassadors for Nigeria.

RSTMH is a flagship society in global health providing and implementing creative solutions to access universal health coverage. Working on the Board is a privilege and an opportunity to work with others to increase the frontiers of the Society and to gain new grounds while still sustaining previous successes.

Professor Olufemi Adewole

Buddha Basnyat is doctor practising medicine in Kathmandu whose research interests are infectious disease and high-altitude medicine.

I feel deeply honoured to be on the Board of Trustees of such an esteemed society, and I wish to use this golden opportunity to help out (especially by sensitising young doctors) in the control of diseases like typhoid and tuberculosis that are sadly rampant in poor countries.

Dr Buddha Basnyat

Our four new elected Trustees, announced at our AGM, are:

• Dr Said Jongo, Senior Clinical research scientist and consultant physician at the Ifakara Health Institute, Bagamoyo Clinical Trials Unit, Tanzania
   
• Dr Pramod Samantaray, Co-Principal Investigator, Clinical Epidemiological Unit, Department of Community Medicine, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
   
• Dr George Varghese, Professor and Head, Department of Infectious Diseases, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. In taking up this role as Trustee, George steps down as one of our two Country Ambassadors for India
   
• Dr Quudus Yusuff, Public Health Physician and Epidemiologist at Ogun State Nigeria

Having been elected as fellow of the RSTMH in 1976, I have had several opportunities to serve the Society at home and abroad. The news of my election as a Trustee came as a pleasant surprise and I hope my future efforts to strengthen various initiatives of the Society would always be a matter of immense pleasure to me.

Professor Pramod Samantaray 

If service to humanity is considered the best work of life, what can be more inspiring for me than the opportunity to contribute to the global world of tropical medicine and hygiene by joining the Board of Trustee of RSTMH.

Dr Quudus Yusuff

 

Being part of RSTMH is a perfect opportunity for me to engage with the global community through a multinational platform in tackling issues related to access and equity in healthcare.

Dr Said Jongo

 

We see illness and suffering differently to make a positive impact in people's lives. That's why we are able to alleviate suffering and build a happier world.

Professor George Varghese

We were also delighted to award several Medals and Awards at our AGM.

Dr Maria Eugenia Grillet received the Hemingway Award – a joint award between RSTMH and LSTM to recognise Professor Hemingway’s achievements in delivering and encouraging translational science during her leadership of LSTM.

Dr Grillet is a professor and principal investigator at the Instituto de Zoología y Ecología Tropical at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, where her research mainly focuses on the epidemiology of vector-borne diseases.

It is an honour be the recipient of the 2021 Hemingway Award. I am grateful to the two sponsoring institutions, RSTMH and LSTM, institutions that I greatly admire, and the academic home of some of my research colleagues.

My research has always moved across disciplines and methodologies and looked to inform effective public health policies to control and eliminate of vector-borne infectious diseases such as malaria and onchocerciasis.

Dr Maria Eugenia Grillet

Charles Wondji was awarded the Chalmers Medal – for those in the mid stage of their career – in recognition of his work mentoring and developing junior investigators.

Charles is a professor of vector biology and genetics at LSTM and the Executive Director of the Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases (CRID) in Cameroon.

Because all humans have the ability to perform to the highest level if given the right support and mentorship, capacity building of young scientists, notably from disease endemic countries, is vital to improve global health.

Professor Charles Wondji