Dr Francine
Ntoumi is the New MIM Secretariat Coordinator
Dar es salaam, 11 July 2007
The African Malaria Network Trust (AMANET) is pleased
to announce that Dr Francine Ntoumi is the
 new
Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Secretariat
Coordinator effective from 15 August 2007. She joins MIM,
a global alliance with a mission to strengthen and
sustain malaria R&D capacity in malaria endemic
countries in Africa, from the European and Developing
Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), where she
has been Senior Scientific Officer.
“Being one of the first proud beneficiaries of the MIM
initiative, I am excited to be given an opportunity to
work for the MIM fraternity. MIM has and continues to
play a very important role in building a pool of African
malaria researchers who are taking the fight against
malaria into all frontiers. Their input is crucial and
they have to contribute to the global research malaria
agenda”, said Dr Ntoumi.
As Coordinator, Dr Ntoumi will be the operator in-charge
for the MIM Secretariat on advocacy, resource
mobilization and raising awareness for the malaria cause
among stakeholders in Africa and globally; promoting
malaria R&D capacity strengthening; enhancing networking
and coordination among MIM constituents and other
malaria research and control alliances; and in promoting
African involvement and commitment into the Initiative.
Dr Ntoumi will be assisted by a Communications Officer,
an Executive Assistant and Information and Technology
Officer.
Dr Ntoumi, a Congolese national, has vast experience in
malaria research, capacity building, management and
leadership. Prior to her position as Senior Scientific
Officer for EDCTP, she was Director of
Research/Associate Professor and Malaria Research Leader
at the Medical Laboratory, Albert Schweitzer Hospital,
Lambaréné, Gabon and the University of Tübingen, Germany
from 2000-2005; Senior Molecular Biologist, Malaria
Group, Centre Medical de Recherchés de Franceville,
Gabon; and Post doctoral fellow, Experimental
Parasitology, Institute Pasteur, France. She has a
Masters degree and a PhD in Molecular Biology from the
University of Paris VI, France. Before that she earned
her undergraduate degree in her native Congo
(Brazzaville). Over the years she has worked and taught
in different institutions in France, Gabon, Germany, The
Netherlands, and Congo where she still teaches at Marien
Ngouabi University. She has mentored over a dozen
postgraduate students, mostly at PhD and postdoctoral
levels.
Dr Ntoumi speaks and writes excellent French, is fluent
in English and German and of course excellent in Lingala
and Lari, the main Congolese national languages.
“This is the right time for Dr Ntoumi to come into the
Secretariat as we work towards repositioning MIM for
more efficient performance to conform to contemporary
scene for malaria capacity building and R&D in Africa.
Her passion for facilitating development of scientific
capacity will be the greatest asset she will bring in”
said Prof Wen Kilama, Managing Trustee of AMANET. He
further added that “AMANET wished to genuinely reach out
to Francophone Africa: Francine will be a great asset in
this regard”.
She has served on several international committees in
various capacities: Member, MIM/TDR Task Force
(2003-present); Member, AMANET Scientific Coordinating
Committee (2001-2005); Member, Scientific Advisory Board
for MIM (2003-2005); Deputy Chair, Developing Countries
Coordinating Committee of EDCTP (2003-2005);
Coordinator, Network on Ethics on Biomedical Research (NEBRA),
Central African chapter (2005-2006) and coordinator for
the Malaria Immunology and Pathogenesis in Africa
Consortium (MIMPAC) involving Seven (7) African
institutions and European partners (2004-2005) to name a
few. She also serves as reviewer for several scientific
journals.
Established in 1997, MIM is an alliance of individuals,
funding partners and four autonomous constituents
comprising the MIM Secretariat, MIM at the WHO Special
Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases
(MIM/TDR), MIM Communication Network (MIMCom), and the
Malaria Research and Reference Reagent Resource Center
(MR4). MIM overarching mission is to strengthen and
sustain, through collaborative research and training,
the capacity of malaria endemic countries in Africa to
carry out research that is required to develop and
improve tools for malaria control and to strengthen the
research-control interphase.
The MIM Secretariat is the Coordinating arm of the MIM
alliance. From January 2006 to December 2010, AMANET
Secretariat in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania is hosting the
MIM Secretariat which was based at Stockholm
University/Karolinska Institut in Stockholm from
2003-2005. Prior to this the Secretariat was hosted in
London, by the Wellcome Trust (1997-1999) and at Fogarty
International Center (FIC) in USA (1999 to 2001). |
