Salim S Abdool Karim, MBChB, PhD is a clinical infectious diseases epidemiologist whose main current research interests are in microbicides and vaccines to prevent HIV infection and implementing antiretroviral therapy in resource constrained settings. He is Pro Vice- Chancellor (Research) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. He is also Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He is Director of CAPRISA - Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa.

Dr Abdool Karim is Principal Investigator of clinical trials assessing the effectiveness of microbicides, HIV vaccines and strategies for integrating antiretroviral therapy into TB treatment services. He is co-inventor on two patents which have been included in candidate HIV vaccines. He has published widely on infectious diseases, including AIDS, measles and hepatitis B and co-edited the textbook that is widely used to teach epidemiology in South Africa as well as a book on HIV/AIDS in South Africa.

He is Associate Editor of AIDS Clinical Care and Editorial Board member of Sexually Transmitted Infection, the Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine and Southern African Journal of Epidemiology and Infection.

He is Co-Chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group for Reproductive Health at the World Health Organization and a Member of the UNAIDS Prevention Reference Group. He is a Steering Committee member of the Gate's Foundation's Global HIV Prevention Working Group and an Executive Committee Member of the NIH funded Microbicide Trials Network. He is a member of the Academy of Science in South Africa and a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa.