Abraham Aseffa

Dr Abraham Aseffa served as Senior Scientist at the Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) in Ethiopia from 2001-2019. He graduated in Medicine from Addis Ababa University (1984) and studied Microbiology at the University of Leipzig, Germany (Dr. med, 1990). He taught Microbiology at Gondar College of Medical Sciences (Ethiopia) until 1998 when he joined the WHO Immunology and Research Training Centre at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland for postdoctoral research. He moved to AHRI in Addis Ababa as senior scientist in 2001. Dr Aseffa has conducted several studies on infectious disease microbiology, immunology and epidemiology in collaboration with national and international partners. He has keen interest in postgraduate student training. He has (co)supervised over 25 PhD and 50 MSc postgraduate students in biomedical sciences. He has worked closely with the Ministry of Health in Ethiopia on capacity building for clinical and operational research and on translation of research findings into practice. Dr Aseffa has also been active on strengthening regional partnership particularly in clinical trial capacity building and health research ethics. He has served in several WHO/TDR, WHO and EDCTP advisory bodies. He is a member of the Ethiopian (EAS) and the Third World Academies of Sciences (TWAS). He served as Director of AHRI between 2010-2016. He later served as Unit Head for Implementation Research at TDR (within the WHO Science Division) from 2020 to 2024. In February 2021, Dr. Abraham Aseffa was honored with the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Continental Award for Scientific Excellence (2020 edition). He is currently serving as an Adjunct Senior Scientist at AHRI.