Prof Tulio de Oliveira named in TIME magazine’s top 100 most influential people of 2022

31 May 2022

Professor Tulio de Oliveira, Director of CERI and KRISP as well as CAPRISA’s honorary senior scientist, was named one of TIME magazine’s top 100 most influential people in the world in the category, Pioneers.  CAPRISA’s Director, Prof Salim Abdool Karim, congratulated Prof de Oliveira on a ‘wonderful and truly deserved recognition.’ 

‘This annual list features individuals who have made the most significant contributions to our world, as identified and voted for by TIME magazine's international network of editors, thought leaders and past recipients of this prestigious accolade.’  

De Oliveira is a professor of Bioinformatics and holds a joint appointment at Stellenbosch University’s (SU) School for Data Science and Computational Thinking, in the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. The recognition was for his Omicron research conducted at the KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform (KRISP). 

TIME selected de Oliveira with Dr Sikhulile Moyo – who was his PhD student for their work in the field of genomics and epidemiology. In November 2021, they led the multidisciplinary team who discovered the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, which quickly became the dominant variant of the virus globally. Moyo 

Read the TIME magazine article here 

Photo: Prof Tulio de Oliveira participates in the discussions at CAPRISA’s Strategic Planning meeting.