简介
Dr. Robert Breiman is Senior Scientific Advisor and the Founding Director of the Infectious Diseases and Oncology Research Institute (IDORI) at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). Before joining Wits, Rob was the Director of the Emory University Global Health Institute and he was the overall PI for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)-funded Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) network, which is providing an array of new insights on targetable causes of neonatal, infant and child deaths in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. During COVID, he served as the Chief Scientific Officer for the Global Health Crisis Coordination Center (GHC3) and he was the Principal Investigator for a CDC funded project to promote equitable SARS-CoV2 immunization—Covid Vaccines Information Equity and Demand creation (COVIED) program. He continues to serve as co-PI for an NIH funded Center for Research on Emerging Infectious Diseases in East and Central Africa (CREID-ECA) and is the PI for the BMGF-funded Scientific Advisory Process for Optimal Research on Typhoid fever disease burden (SAPORT). In recent years, he was PI of the Gavi-funded Rotavirus Immunization Program Evaluation in Kenya (RIPEK) and the BMGF-funded Global Pneumococcal Sequencing project (GPS).
Prof Breiman was at the US CDC for 26 years (until 2013), where he focused on pneumonia, diarrheal disease, immunizations, emerging infections and urbanization. His time at CDC included 13 years outside of the US, including 4 years based in Dhaka, Bangladesh (where he was the Founding Head of the Program on Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Sciences at ICDDR,B) from 2000-4, and 9 years in Kenya (with the Kenya Medical Research Institute/CDC), including serving as Country Director (2010-3) and the Founding Director of the International Emerging Infections Program/Global Disease Detection Division in Kenya. During his career he has led major investigations of outbreaks, including the first outbreak of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in the US, SARS in China, Nipah virus encephalitis in Bangladesh, Rift Valley Fever and Chikungunya in Kenya.
At Wits-IDORI, Breiman is focused on developing novel , effective (and feasible in low resource settings) approaches to prevent, screen for and diagnose, and treat high burden cancers in Africa (with potential use, globally), as well as establishing an environment for training and mentoring to advance fulfilling careers for the next generation of scientific leaders in Africa.
Prof Breiman was elected to the US National Academy of Medicine and the American Epidemiology Society. He is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), as well as of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH). According to Google Scholar, Prof Breiman’s publications have >72,000 citations with an h-factor of 133. He continues to be a tenured Professor of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
