Professor Kevin Marsh
Professor of Tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Medicine; Director Africa Oxford Initiative; Fellow of St Cross College
About
Professor Kevin Marsh is a malariologist and global health researcher who has spent over 30 years living and working in Africa. His major research interests focus on immunity to and pathogenesis of malaria.
In 1989, he established with colleagues a series of research projects on the immunology and clinical epidemiology of malaria at Kilifi on the Kenyan coast. The KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme has subsequently developed into an international health research programme with around 800 staff working across a number of countries in east Africa of which he was director until August 2014.
Professor Marsh was chair of the WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Committee from 2012-2019 and is a member of many international advisory committees relating to malaria and to global health research. He has a particular interest in supporting science and scientific leadership in Africa and from 2014 he led the development of the concept for a major new platform, the Alliance for the Acceleration of Science in Africa (AESA), which in 2022 transitioned to a free standing Pan African Organisation, The Science for Africa Foundation (SFA), of which he was a founding director.
In 2016, he led the establishment of the Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx) a cross disciplinary platform to build equitable partnerships with African academics and researchers.
Expertise
- Africa
- African development
- Global health
- Malaria
- Tropical medicine
Selected publications
- Prime-boost vaccination with chimpanzee adenovirus and modified vaccinia Ankara encoding TRAP provides partial protection against Plasmodium falciparum infection in Kenyan adults (2015)
- New antigens for a multicomponent blood-stage malaria vaccine (2014)
- Memory B cells are a more reliable archive for historical antimalarial responses than plasma antibodies in no-longer exposed children (2012)
Media experience
Professor Marsh has extensive media experience with both print and broadcast media.