Stellenbosch University/Stefan ElsTIME magazine has recognised Professor Tulio de Oliveira in its inaugural TIME100 Health list, a new annual compilation that celebrates the individuals considered to have had the most impact on global health in the past year.
This recognition, determined by the publication’s international network of editors, thought leaders and previous honourees, marks De Oliveira’s second appearance in the magazine’s influential rankings, following his previous inclusion in the 2022 TIME100 list of the world’s most influential people.
“I am deeply honoured to be recognised by TIME once again. This acknowledgment underscores the importance of collaborative research efforts in addressing global health challenges,” De Oliveira said in a media release.
World-renowned
De Oliveira is a world-renowned scientist on the field of genomics. He is the director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI) at Stellenbosch University (SU) and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa. He is also the deputy director of the Genomic Surveillance Unit (GSU) at the Wellcome Sanger Institute (WSI) in the United Kingdom.
De Oliveira’s interest in analysing disease outbreaks started in 1997 in a virology research lab at UKZN. One of his first projects was to co-author software to classify variants of the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS.
In 2021, he led a multidisciplinary team of researchers and scientists in the discovery of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, which swiftly emerged as the dominant global variant of the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic.
That was after he had led the team that discovered the SARS-CoV-2 Beta variant in 2020.
In 2023, De Oliveira launched the Climate Amplified Diseases and Epidemics (CLIMADE) consortium, a global initiative to characterise diseases and pathogens that are amplified by climate change.
“Once I saw that the COVID-19 pandemic was receding, I decided to work with our team of more than 100 scientists in South Africa and with the largest genomics facility in the world, the WSI, to create a new programme of work, this time to fight the multiple diseases that are being amplified by climate change, such as dengue, chikungunya, the Zika virus, influenza and cholera,” he said.
Genomic surveillance
University World News reported earlier this year that De Oliveira leads a project called Genomic Surveillance to Control Pathogen Infections in Africa (GenPath Africa).
In September 2023, the initiative received a grant of €5 million (about US$5.4 million) from Horizon Europe, the flagship research and innovation programme of the European Union (EU), to better diagnose, monitor and clinically manage current and future epidemics in Africa.
The grant was awarded to a consortium of researchers from South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Belgium and Germany. The funding will help them enhance genomic surveillance capacity, strengthen genomic sequencing and provide training in advanced genomic analysis and interpretation in Southern and East Africa.
Cluster of research excellence
De Oliveira is also the co-leader of the Africa-Europe Cluster of Research Excellence, or CoRE on Genomics for Health in Africa, one of 20 such collaborative research structures launched by the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities in 2023.
De Oliveira’s cluster gathered at SU’s Tygerberg campus for its first in-person meeting in January. This marked a significant step forward in fostering collaborative genomic research across continents, setting the stage for dynamic collaboration and promising advancements in health research.
Numerous accolades
Throughout his career, De Oliveira has garnered numerous accolades for his contributions to public health and infectious disease research.
In addition to his being listed in Nature as one of the top 10 people who helped to shape science in 2021, he was also included in the MIT Technology Review list as one of the leaders of the top 10 breakthrough technologies in 2022.
He has received the Order of Merit medal from the Portuguese President, the Gold Medal Award from the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), the Batho Pele Award from the South African government for his contributions to society, and the German Africa prize in 2022.
Commenting on his latest achievement, Professor Sibusiso Moyo, deputy vice-chancellor for research, innovation and postgraduate studies at SU, praised De Oliveira’s “tireless dedication to advancing scientific knowledge and his exceptional leadership in the field of genomics and bioinformatics”.
Schooling and studies
Articles by Engela Duvenage for SU provide background about De Oliveira as a person.
“When given the chance, he cycles to work, in an effort to strike a better work-life balance.
“Each time we double our pressure, we also double our basic mental health processes. Otherwise, one cannot handle that kind of pressure,’ ” said the professor, who doesn’t much like hierarchical structures or being called by any title other than his name.
“This ethos was instilled in him by his civil engineer mother, Maria, when he was placed in a programme for gifted children in Brazil at the age of six. She ensured that he made time for tennis, skateboarding and basketball in between learning about computing, programming and artificial intelligence.
“While flying his way through school and university, he often heard that he was ‘too rebellious’. Still, De Oliveira often uses words such as ‘fun’ and ‘laughter’ in describing his day job, through which he combines his interest in biological and health sciences with his IT prowess.
“He has called South Africa home since the age of 21, when he and his two sisters decided to study in Durban after their mother returned to Mozambique for work reasons.”
Four others from Africa also made it onto the TIME100 Health list.
Dr Hadiza Galadanci, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Nigeria’s Bayero University and the director of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Population Health and Policy, or ACEPHAP, works with a network of collaborators in other countries to implement and study a simple yet effective system for preventing fatal postpartum haemorrhages, one of the leading causes of maternal mortality.
Mulikat Okanlawon and Fidel Strub founded the Elysium association for survivors of noma, a neglected tropical disease that causes a gangrenous infection on the face, in 2022. Okanlawon was born in Lagos, Nigeria. She now works at the Sokoto Noma Children’s Hospital in that country. Strub was born in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, but has lived in Switzerland since his adoption by doctors from that country.
Jaha Dukureh’s campaigns against female genital mutilation, or FGM, in her native Gambia and elsewhere. A 2015 ban that she helped to achieve through her non-profit organisation Safe Hands for Girls might be reversed in June if the country’s National Assembly passes a bill to that effect.
Dukureh suffered FGM when she was one week old. Gambia is among the 10 countries with the highest levels of the practice.
