Dr Robert Breiman
Dr Robert Breiman is the Interim Director of the new Infectious Diseases and Oncology Research Institute (IDORI) at 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.
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, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh (where he was the Founding Head of the Program on Infectious Diseases and Vaccine Sciences atICDDR,B) from 2000-4, and in Kenya (with the Kenya Medical Research Institute/CDC collaboration for 9 years, including serving as Country Director and the Founding Director of the International Emerging Infections Program/Global DiseaseDetection Division in Kenya.
He 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 citations with an h-factor of 125.
Ms Caryn (Caz) McNamara
Caz is the Senior Program Manager of IDORI. She holds a Masters degree in Biochemistry from Rhodes University, and has more recently graduated cum laude with a Postgraduate Diploma in Research Management and Administration from Stellenbosch University. She has worked in the academic research management sector for 15 years, and also holds IPRC-conferred Senior Research Management Professional (SRMP) status.
She has worked in the higher education sector, predominantly in the externally-funded grants arena, focussing on the development of multi-institutional research projects and/or consortia (including: a Carnegie Corporation-funded research support centre; a FRF SARChI Chair in Mathematics Education; the Wits Sydney Brenner Institute in Molecular Bioscience (SBIMB); the DSI-NICIS National e-Science Teaching and Training Platform (NEPTTP); and the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (CoE-MaSS).
Caz has also served on numerous regional and international conference Local Organising Committees (LOCs): including SAARMSTE, SARIMA and WCRI. Caz serves the SADC Research Management community as a SARIMA Committee member (2021-2023) and is on the IPRC's Technical Review Committee, promoting the recognition of Research Management and Administration (RMA) as a profession in Africa.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0701-6481
Ms Refiloe Mashigo
Ms Refiloe Mashigo is the Research Administrator at IDORI. She holds a BCom in Economics from the University of South Africa (UNISA). She has worked previously as a Finance Administrator at the Wits Health Consortium and has previous experience in social media and events coordination.
https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0075-1800