Dr. Judy Omumbo voted into the African Academy of Sciences
Dr. Judy Omumbo of Palisades has been voted a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS). Dr. Omumbo, who heads the Policy Impact Unit within the Malaria Public Health Department, was elected after a rigorous review of her work and recommendations from experts in the field.
“As an AAS fellow, I hope to con- tribute towards improving Africaʼs capacity for management of research, development, and public policy by bridging the gaps between natural, applied, and social scientists, the private sector, and govern- ments,” Dr. Omumbo said on her appointment.
The AAS is an Africa-wide scientific organization that aims to recognize and honor scientists, scholars, technologists, and engineers for exceptional contribution to the advancement of science-based knowledge in Africa. The Academy Fellows, currently numbering over 186 from 32 African countries, are elected from African scientists who have attained the highest interna- tional standards.
Dr. Omombo began her career in epidemiology in 1995 working as part of the KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Collaborative Programme in Kenya. In 2002 she was awarded a Wellcome Trust Prize studentship to undertake a D.Phil. at the University of Oxford in modeling the spatial risks of Plasmodium falciparum in East Africa. When she completed her D.Phil. in 2005 she moved to Columbia Universityʼs International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) in Palisades where she was an Associate Research Scientist with IRI's Africa Program until 2011. Her research interests involve promoting the use of evi- dence-based decision making for disease control in Africa.