Dr. Marsh has spent his adult life living and working in Africa where he has made a major impact on Malaria and infectious disease among children. His work has been definitive and ground breaking which have had an impact on the health of millions of children in Africa. It has led to the evidence base for interventions leading to the decline in malaria across Africa, which is estimated to have led to the avoidance of 6 million childhood deaths over the last 15 years. He published over 450 medical journal articles with African colleagues in peer-reviewed journals. Over these decades he has built training and research in Africa in Kilifi, Kenya at the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Wellcome Trust Research Programme. This has been done in collaboration with University of Oxford and the US Center for Disease Control (CDC). Through grants received from the UK and other international funders he has trained numerous scientists including many who assumed leadership positions in Africa and globally. The majority of Dr. Marsh’s work during the past ten years has focused on better control and eventually eradication of malaria. He has gained the trust and respect of his African colleagues leading the African Academy of Sciences to promote the health sciences among African scientists. His leadership in the development of AESA (Accelerating Excellence of Science in Africa), a new pan African platform for supporting excellence in science, is having a continent wide effect in building the scientific and technological base on which Africa’s development depends. As a member on many international advisory bodies on tropical disease control, including those in malaria of the World Health Organization, he has provided regional and global leadership.
