CHRISTOPHER V. PLOWE, MD MPH FASTMH
Professor and Founding Director
Institute for Global Health & Division of Malaria Research
685 W. Baltimore Street, HSF-I 480
Baltimore, MD 21201
410 706 2491
[email protected]
February 22, 2016
Council Members
American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene
One Parkview Plaza, Suite 800
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
RE: Nomination of Ogobara K. Doumbo, M.D., Ph.D. as Honorary International Fellow of ASTMH
Dear ASTMH Council Members,
It is my great pleasure to write this letter providing my strongest possible support for the nomination of Ogobara K.
Doumbo, M.D., Ph.D. as an Honorary International Fellow of ASTMH. I am professor of medicine, of
microbiology and immunology, and of epidemiology and public health, founding director of the Institute for Global
Health, and director of the Division of Malaria Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. I served
as president of ASTMH 2014-2015. I have worked and collaborated closely with Dr. Doumbo for almost 25 years.
Professor Doumbo—widely known as “Ogo”—is a true icon of tropical medicine and parasitology. He is world
renowned for his contributions to malaria research, and for building capacity for malaria research and training in
Africa. He has produced and continues to produce work that has major global impact on the study, treatment, and
prevention of malaria. As a co-founder and the longtime director of the Malaria Research and Training Center in
and the founding chairman of the Department of Epidemiology of Parasitic Diseases at the University of Bamako in
Mali, Ogo has built one of the premier research centers on the continent and mentored generations of leading
African scientists.
Ogo is widely published in malaria research and more broadly in parasitology and clinical tropical medicine, with
more than 400 papers cited over 13,000 times. His early work focused on the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment
and immunology of filariasis, schistosomiasis and other helminth infections. For the last two decades he has focused
mainly on malaria epidemiology, immunology, drug resistance and vaccine development, although he remains
active in parasitology research. Among his major contributions are the validation of the molecular marker of
chloroquine resistant malaria, the development of regimens for the intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in
pregnant women, and the first field trials of several malaria vaccine candidates. Ogo was instrumental in creating
and guiding the international Multilateral Initiative on Malaria.
Ogo’s outstanding contributions to malaria research is demonstrated by his many awards and honors including the
Portugal Prestigious National Scientific Prize awarded by the Sociedade das Ciencias Medicas de Lisbona and the
Pfizer Laboratories (2015), the INSERM International Prize for Research (2013) (France), appointment as the
Infectious Disease Chair of Docteurs Mérieux, the Espagne Prestigious Prize in Collaborative Medical Research,
“Prix Prince des Asturies” (2008) (Spain), an Alpha Omega Alpha US Medical Society Award, elected membership
in the National Academy of Medicine of France (2008), the Christophe Mérieux Prize (2007) (France), and the
International Center of Excellence in Clinical Research from NIAID/NIH (2004). Dr. Ogobara also has been
knighted by France's Legion of Honor and Mali's National Order.
February 22, 2016
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Recognized as an expert in the field of malaria research, Dr. Ogobara has served on numerous important
international editorial boards, advisory boards and committees. He has been a reviewer for leading peer-reviewed
journals including The Lancet, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and
Hygiene, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Clinical Infectious Diseases and Malaria Journal. He has been a
member of the advisory board of France’s Institution for Research and Development (IRD France), and the advisory
boards of Institut Pasteur de Paris/France and Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD Dakar). He served on The WHO’s
Malaria Vaccine Advisory Committee, The WHO’s International Commission of Dracunculosis Eradication
Certification, and was Malaria Advisor to the WHO AFRO office and Advisor to Islamic Bank Malaria programs.
Dr. Doumbo became a member of Mali’s National Committee on Ethics in 2003 after being nominated by the
President of Mali.
Ogo has been an outstanding mentor and exemplary role model for younger African and international researchers.
He has directly trained 20 graduate students and 30 masters’ students, and established a rich and supportive
environment that has nurtured the careers of hundreds more junior scientists. As one example of his pioneering
initiative, Ogo personally—and successfully—lobbied the President of Mali to create a new career track for
academic researchers within the Malian civil service, effectively ending a brain drain of mid-level scientists from
university positions. Several of his trainees are now independent scientists in their own right, leading their own
research groups, and competing successfully for international research funding including from the NIH, Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, the Wellcome Trust and others.
Ogo has been very active in ASTMH, attending most of our annual meetings for the last 20 years, giving numerous
presentations and serving as the senior author on hundreds of abstracts delivered by his protégés.
As a longtime friend and colleague of Ogo’s I can attest to his remarkable personal qualities and his absolute
dedication to advancing tropical medicine research, education and capacity building. He is a true visionary and an
inspiring leader whose values and wisdom I try to emulate. His accomplishments and contributions are all the more
amazing when you consider that he grew up in remote rural Mali, herding cattle on the Dogon plain, where he went
for his first ride in an automobile at age 16.
In summary, Dr. Ogobara Doumbo is a leading, highly influential physician and researcher who has had major
impact in malaria research, parasitology and research capacity building. He is extremely well regarded and
respected internationally by his peers and the scientific community and he will continue to contribute as a prominent
leader in global health. I very enthusiastically support the nomination of Dr. Ogobara Doumbo as an Honorary
International Fellow of ASTMH. He personifies the ideals of our society and is without question deserving of this
important recognition.
Sincerely,
Christopher V. Plowe, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.S.T.M.H.
Professor and Founding Director, Institute for Global Health
Past President, American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene