RSTMH Annual Meeting
The RSTMH Annual Meeting brings together members, Fellows, and supporters from around the world to share knowledge, hear about the latest research and ideas, and encourage new collaborations.
This year the theme of the meeting will be Equitable Partnerships in Tropical Medicine and Global Health.
We are delighted to announce the Scientific Committee for this year’s meeting are Co-Chairs Professor Sir David Mabey and Professor Olaoluwa Pheabian Akinwale, and Scientific Committee Member Professor Liz Ashley.
Co-Chair
Professor Sir David Mabey is a Past President of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine Hygiene. He started his tenure as President in September 2019, having been elected to the Board in the same year.
Professor Mabey is a physician specialising in Infectious and Tropical Diseases. After training in the UK, he went to work at the Medical Research Council unit in The Gambia, West Africa in 1978, and was in charge of clinical services there from 1982-86. He joined the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Clinical Sciences in 1986, and was made Professor of Communicable Diseases in 1994. He was an Honorary Consultant Physician at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London from 1987 to 2019. He was head of the Clinical Research Unit at the School from 1995-2002, and was Director of the Wellcome Trust Bloomsbury Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine/Global Health Research from 1995 to 2018.
Co-Chair
Professor Olaoluwa Pheabian Akinwale is a Professor of Parasitology and is the in-house Deputy Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, and the Institute’s Director of Neglected Tropical Disease Research, as well as head of its Molecular Parasitology Research Laboratory, a member of Africa Buruli ulcer Laboratory Network (BU-LABNET). Professor Akinwale is a member of the World Health Organization Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTD). She is also a member of the African Research Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (ARNTD), and a member of TDR Global Research Mentorship Working Group, that currently developed an Institutional Research Mentorship Guideline for low- and middle-income countries. Her efforts led to the establishment of in-country molecular diagnosis of Buruli ulcer in Nigeria thereby preventing diagnostic delay, improving treatment outcome, and providing continuous technical support to the National Tuberculosis, Buruli ulcer and Leprosy Control Programme.
Scientific Committee Members
Professor Elizabeth Ashley is the Director of the Lao-Oxford-Mahosot Hospital-Wellcome Trust Research Unit (LOMWRU) in Vientiane, Laos. She is a Professor of Tropical Medicine at the University of Oxford, Visiting Professor of Infectious Diseases and Global Health at the University of Health Sciences in Laos, and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She has worked in Southeast Asia for 18 of the last 26 years, in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. Her main academic interests are antimalarial therapeutics and resistance, optimal treatment of infectious diseases in low resource settings and training early career scientists.
Professor Patty García is a Professor and former Dean of the School of Public Health at Cayetano Heredia University (UPCH), Lima-Peru and member of the US-National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Garcia graduated as a medical doctor in Lima-Peru, completed training in Internal Medicine (University of Miami) and Infectious Diseases (University of Washington) in the United States and earned her Master's and PhD degrees in Public Health and Medicine. She is the former Minister of Health of Peru and former Chief of the Peruvian National Institute of Health. Dr. Garcia is recognized as a leader in Global Health and is actively involved in research and training in Implementation and health systems research, quality in health services, Reproductive health, STI/HIV, diagnostics, medical-informatics and HPV/cervical cancer. Going forward, Dr. Garcia is interested in continuing with research in the areas of her core interests including NCD, promoting community participation in research, equity and involving the most vulnerable populations and working on high quality health systems and health systems redesign.
Tijana Williams is a passionate global health leader, strategist, and advocate with nearly two decades of experience working to eliminate infectious diseases and improve equitable access to essential medicines and diagnostics in low- and middle-income countries. She currently serves in the Office of the CEO at ViiV Healthcare, where she bridges strategy and delivery on high-impact projects. Previously, Tijana led GSK’s global Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) programme, responsible for delivering over 1 billion treatments annually to over 100 countries through strategic partnerships with WHO, donors, implementing partners, ministries of health, and community organisations. Her leadership has shaped global supply chains, advanced health system strengthening efforts, and piloted innovation, such as AI-based early detection tools, into real-world programmes.