Advisory Group

Collins Magalasi is a renowned economist and currently holds the position of Chief Executive Officer for the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA). He also serves as Chief Economic Advisor to the President of the Republic of Malawi.

Diana is a paediatrician, Professor of Epidemiology and Leader of the Paediatric Research Programme at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL, London. Since early 1990s, she has coordinated multi-country paediatric HIV trials across Europe, Thailand and South America, expanding to South/East Africa in 1999 and recently to India. Her focus has widened to tuberculosis, malaria and antimicrobial resistance. Evaluating children’s medicines suitable to the setting is a theme across all research and capacity building is a key component of trial programmes.

Elly T Katabira is a Professor of Medicine at the School of Medicine, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Kampala, Uganda.

Dr. Katabira received his medical degree at Makerere University and went on to specialise in Neurology in England. He has been working in the field of HIV as a clinician, an educator and a researcher since 1985. He started the first AIDS clinic in Africa and has worked with many organizations including WHO and UNAIDS. He joined the IAS in 1990 and in 2000 became the regional representative at the governing council. In 2010 he became the President of IAS up to 2012.

Professor Alistair McGuire is Chair in Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy.

He has been interested in the economics of health care for over thirty years. Professor McGuire’s research interests cover all topics in health economics, including international comparisons, economics of the hospital, public/private sector interface, cost-effectiveness analysis of health technologies, and health economics alongside clinical trials.

Dr Charles Mwansambo is a UK trained Paediatrician and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. He is currently the Chief of Health Services for Malawi.

Prior to the current post, he was Secretary for Health and before that was a Consultant Paediatrician and Head of Department at the Kamuzu Central Hospital in Malawi’s Capital City, Lilongwe, where he still practices to date. He also served as Hospital Director at the same institution in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.

Professor Moffat Nyirenda is a Diabetologist/Endocrinologist and Professor of Medicine (Global Non-Communicable Diseases) at the LSHTM, and lead the chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) research theme at MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit. Before joining MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, Moffat was Director of Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit. Moffat’s research interests lie in mechanistic understanding (clinical and laboratory phenotyping) of the aetiology of NCDs. He serves on a number of committees, including being chairman of Scientific Advisory Board for GSK Africa NCD Open Lab and member of the Wellcome Trust Public Health and Tropical Medicine Interview Committee, among many others.

Dr. John Phuka is currently Dean of the School of Public Health. His research interests are largely in nutritional related matters and interactions. His expertise led him to advising the Malawian Government and its partners through serving in technical working groups and nutrition policy advisory boards.

Damian Walker is Deputy Director of Data and Analytics, Global Development, and Strategy Planning at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Damian is a health economist with more than 15 years of experience in international health economics, with a specific focus on the economic evaluation of public health programs in low- and middle-income countries. Prior to the Gates Foundation, Damian was an Associate Professor in the Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University.

Professor Ian Weller is an Emeritus Professor of Sexually Transmitted Diseases at University College London. Chair of the Steering Committees of a number of international trials and studies in HIV/AIDS, funded by the UK’s Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and Department of International Development. He was Vice-Chair of the UK’s Commission on Human Medicines and is Chair of the trustees of the HIV Research Trust providing scholarships for health care professionals from resource limited countries.