Francine Ntoumi

Ms.  Francine Ntoumi is the Founder, President and Executive Director of the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research in the Republic of Congo and Professor of molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases at the institute of Tropical Medicine of University of Tübingen, Germany. She serves as President of the scientific committee of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) in France and as a fellow of the World Academy of Science. 

Since January 2009, Prof. Ntoumi has been involved in developing health research capacities in Central Africa, promoting and advocating for more African women in science. Her main areas of research include Malaria, tuberculosis and COVID-19. She has trained African scientists in immunology and molecular epidemiology throughout her career, serving as the first African leader of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) from 2007 to 2010.

She received the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Regional Scientific Award for women in 2012, the Georg Forster Prize in Germany in 2015 and the Christophe Mérieux Prize in France in 2016 and the Recipient of the Federal German Service Cross (Bundesverdienstkreuz) in 2022. She is also a role model in official primary school manuals in the Republic of Congo.