MORE ABOUT THE 2006 MFI AWARD WINNERS

Wen Kilama, PhD, is the Founder and Managing Trustee, African Malaria Network Trust (AMANET), a panAfrican nongovernmental, nonprofit organization dedicated to capacity strengthening and networking of malaria research across Africa.  Professor Kilama is the former Director-General of the National Institute for Medical Research (Tanzania's equivalent of the US National Institutes of Health, NIH), which he founded in 1980.  In 2000 he served as Chair of the Malaria Foundation's International Board and was instrumental in negotiations at Intergovernmental Negotiating Conferences to save DDT for malaria control. Wen Kilama is one of two first Africans elected to Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He has also been President, World Federation of Public Health Associations. Professor Kilama recently created AMANET (www.amanet-trust.org), which will soon host the secretariat for the world's Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) - which was founded in 1997.  He has to his credit over one hundred scholarly papers. Professor Kilama has served on numerous committees and task forces for US agencies, the WHO, the World Bank, and the European Commission among others.  He is an exceptional advisor for malaria research and control programs throughout Africa, as well as an expert source of knowledge and advice on issues pertaining to both health research ethics and sustainable development.  Professor Kilama earned his doctorate in biology from the University of Notre Dame in l970, and is a Chartered Member of the Alumni Academic Hall of Fame of St Michael's College, Vermont, USA.  Wen Kilama founded and headed the Department of Parasitology and Medical Entomology, University of Dar-es-Salaam in 1970.  Professor Wen Kilama was the opening speaker in the First Atlanta “Hedge Funds vs. Malaria” Business Leadership conference.

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Awa Marie Coll-Seck, MD, PhD, began serving as the Executive Secretary of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership in 2004.  Dr. Coll-Seck was the Minister of Health of Senegal from 2001 to 2003 and previously held director positions for Policy, Strategy and Research at UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva and in the Infectious Diseases Department at the University Teaching Hospital in Dakar, Senegal.  She has been a coordinator, counselor, and trainer with the National AIDS Program and a member of the World Health Organization country team in malaria in Senegal. Dr. Coll-Seck received her medical degree in Senegal, with specialized studies in bacteriology and virology, infectious and tropical diseases.  She also studied applied epidemiology and biostatistics in Annecy, France.  She is author of more than 150 scientific publications, including over 50 on different aspects of HIV/AIDS.  She has been a consultant on numerous AIDS, reproductive health, and development studies in Africa for various international and national organizations, including the World Health Organization, the Population Council, and the United Nations Development Programme.  She has been principal investigator of international research grants on medical and social aspects of AIDS, tuberculosis, and cervical cancer.  Dr. Coll-Seck sits on the board and is a member of numerous scientific societies and nongovernmental organizations in Senegal.

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