Dr. Thomas Elliot Nyirenda
Director
Dr Nyirenda is Strategic Partnerships & Capacity Development Manager and Head of Africa Office of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnerships (EDCTP). He is a public health physician and research scientist with 28 years’ experience of working in sub-Saharan Africa in areas of Clinical Medicine, Public Health and Clinical Research.
He trained in Medicine at University of St Andrews (Scotland), St Mary’s Hospital (London) and Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) in Malawi. He did his Public Health training at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Before joining EDCTP in 2004, he worked as a District Health Officer, Tuberculosis National Research Officer for the Ministry of Health in Malawi, after which he took up a Medical Officer position at the World Health Organisation (WHO) within the Stop TB Department which was followed by similar 4-year appointment at the WHO Country Office in Malawi. His contribution to TB control included participation in establishing an operational research progamme within the Malawi National TB Control Programme for TB/HIV control in pre-ARV era and being a Principal Investigator for a DOTS research project in Malawi including supervision of such projects in other African countries under WHO. His role in academic teaching has included moderation of MSc studentship courses at University of Witwatersrand (South Africa), Honorary Lectureship of Public Health at KUHeS, and Extraordinary Senior Lectureship in the Department of Global Health of University of Stellenbosch (South Africa). Besides his current role at EDCTP, he is also chairperson for the Science for Africa Foundation Advisory Board on Clinical Trials Capacity Data Base programme (CTC), and represents EDCTP (in both official and personal capacity) on several committees such as the AUDA-NEPAD AMRH working groups, African CDC Task Force on COVID-19, Global COVID-19 Coalition, TB Vaccine Initiative (TBVI), WHO Advisory Group on Clinical Trials Coordination and Strengthening, GloPID-R Africa Hub Advisory Group, MRCT- Subject Matter Expert (SME) for ICH E8 training, and the Global Health Trials Network of University of Oxford.
He is a founding Director of Clinical Research Education and Management Services Ltd in Malawi. He also published widely in the areas of infectious diseases clinical and operations research.