Prof. Christian Happi
Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics, and Director of
Institute of Genomics and Global Health, Redeemer’s University, Ede, Nigeria.
Christian Happi, is a Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics, and Director of Institute of Genomics and Global Health, Redeemer’s University, Ede, Nigeria.
He graduated his PhD from the University of Ibadan in 2000, and did his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University (2000-2003). He worked at the Harvard School of Public Health as a Research Scientist (2004-2007). He is currently Adjunct Professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA.
His research focus is on genomics of infectious diseases (Malaria, Lassa fever, Ebola Virus Disease, Monkeypox, Yellow fever, HIV, Covid-19, Marburg) and Human genomics. He has published over 230 peer-reviewed articles, most of them in top tier journals, with a Google Scholar citation of over 32,000 and H-Index of 55. With resources from many funding organizations, he established the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) and the Institute of Genomics and Global Health (IGH)–the foremost advanced genomics center and Institute in Africa. Through these platforms, Prof. Happi has been able to support genomic sequencing of Human and pathogens in 42 African countries, and trained over 3,000 young Scientists from 53 of the 54 African countries.
For his inspiring, seminal and innovative genomics research works, capacity building efforts, and health leadership development in Africa and the World, Prof. Christian Happi has received several prestigious national and International honors, Awards and recognitions including: TIME100-One of the 100 World’s Most influential people in 2025; TIME100 Health-One of the 100 World’s Most influential people in Health in 2025; the 2021 Al-Sumait Prize for African Development of the Kuwait Foundation for Advancement in Sciences (KFAS); the 2020 Bailey K. Ashford Medal of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; the 2019 Human Genome Organization (HUGO) Africa Prize; the Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award (2011). He is a Fellow of several academies, including: the Nigerian Academy of Sciences (FAS); the Academy of Medical Specialties of Nigeria (FAMS); the African Academy of Sciences (FAAS); and a member of the US National Academy of Medicine (NAM).
