Pauline Byakika-Kibwika, is a Professor of Internal Medicine and Epidemiology and has been the Head of Department of Internal Medicine at Makerere University College of Health Sciences. She is a Fellow of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the East Central and Southern Africa College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. She holds an earned Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and completed post-doctoral studies. She holds two Masters degrees, the first one in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and another, Master of Medicine in Internal Medicine, both obtained from Makerere University, Kampala. She holds a certificate in leadership obtained from Havard School of Public Health, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, USA. Her academic journey of higher education started in 1993 when she joined Makerere University Medical School, where she has served in various capacities until the time of her appointment as the 3rd Vice Chancellor of MUST.
Her PhD studies focused on strengthening biomedical research capacity, culminating in the establishment of a clinical pharmacology research unit at the Infectious Diseases Institute, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, and embarking on a journey that has given her local, regional, and international experience working with different ministries in Uganda, the East African Community, the East African Health Research Commission, the World Health Organization, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Tullow Oil Uganda Pty and Total Exploration and Production Ltd.
Her post-doctoral studies were funded by the prestigious 3-year EDCTP1 Senior Fellowship, for which she performed randomized clinical trials to investigate treatment options for severe malaria in children and provided leadership to a team of national trainers on management of severe malaria and its complications. Successful completion of this research work facilitated her to win another prestigious award of the 5-year EDCTP2 Senior Fellowship, which she used to evaluate strategies for optimizing malaria treatment for HIV-Malaria co- infected individuals.
Prior to her appointment as the 3rd Vice Chancellor of MUST, Professor Byakika-Kibwika served as:
- The Chair of the Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala (MakCHS), leading a team of professors and other academics, including the former Principal of the College, Prof. Nelson K. Sewankambo; two former Deans, School of Medicine, Prof. Moses R. Kamya and Prof. Harriet Mayanja; and the current Principal of MakCHS, Damalie Nakanjako. She has blossomed and flourished from a cradle of leadership in the celebrated MakCHS.
- Head, Infectious Diseases Unit, Department of Internal Medicine,
- Director, Directorate of Research and Chair Scientific Review Committee, Department of Internal Medicine,
- Past President, Uganda Society for Health Sciences
- Past Vice President, Uganda Medical Association
- Past Vice President, Association of Physicians of Uganda
- Commissioner, East African Health Research Commission, and is still
- A former member of the National Accreditation Committee for Research Ethics Committees in Uganda at the Uganda National Council for Science and Prof. Pauline was on the team that developed the current version of the UNCST National Guidelines for Research involving Humans as Research Participants, the “brown bible” for anyone conducting such research in Uganda.
- A member of the National Task Force that guided the development of the National Guidelines for Use of Animals in Research and Teaching,
- A current member on the Ministerial Scientific Advisory Committee on Ebola
- A current member on the Ministerial Scientific Advisory Committee on Malaria
- A current member on the Ministerial Scientific Advisory Committee on COVID-19
- Chairperson of the MakCHS’ Women Scientists’ Career Development Program
- Chairperson of the MakCHS Mentorship Program
Prof. Pauline Byakika-Kibwika has a strong track record in research, publications, student supervision, and resource mobilization through winning grants. She has co-authored more than 78 peer-reviewed publications and 19 conference papers. Her contribution to science is greatly cited, with a research interest score of 942.2, 1,506 citations, and an h-index of 23 by Research Gate. She has supervised scores of postgraduate students and is a member of nine doctoral committees. Besides research, Pauline is a reviewer of notable peer- reviewed journals: Lancet, PLOS One, African Health Sciences, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, East African Health Research Journal, East African Science Journal, BMC Infectious Disease Journal. She is a Review Editor on the Editorial Board of Infectious Diseases & Surveillance, Prevention and Treatment, of Frontiers in Medicine and Frontiers in Public Health.
Prof. Byakika-Kibwika has vast experience in networking, negotiation, collaboration, and resource mobilization, as evidenced by successfully competitively winning health research grants– a journey that started as early as 2000 when she obtained the Fogarty International Center/NIH Scholarship for an MSc degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Two years later, in 2002, she obtained another Fogarty International Center/NIH Scholarship for a Master’s Degree in Internal Medicine.
She has been the Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Investigator on several HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, COVID-19, and research ethics capacity-building projects. Important to note and of particular interest to MUST, Prof. Pauline is the PI of SCALE-IT, “Scaling up capacity to support conduct of clinical trials in the East African Community”, funded by the European Commission- EU, “Towards eliminating HIV in Uganda by 2030: Preparing Ethical Review
Committees to Support this Agenda” funded by the US NIH, and also led the concluded “Women Scientists’ Career Development Program (WoSCaDeP)”, funded by the TDR/WHO.
She has been principal investigator of 12 locally and internationally funded projects, co-investigator of another 11 international projects, and two big projects funded by the government of Uganda under the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovations.
