Genre: Statistician ISPM

Lukas is an epidemiologist and public health expert. His research focuses on infectious disease epidemiology, with a particular emphasis on the epidemiology of tuberculosis and HIV at the intersection of clinical and molecular data. He also has a keen interest in tuberculosis and respiratory virus transmission. As a senior research scientist, he has led multiregional projects on tuberculosis and HIV in large international collaborations (ART-LINC, IeDEA, Swiss HIV Cohort Study, Collaboration of Observational HIV Epidemiological Research in Europe) and conducted molecular epidemiological studies in Switzerland and sub-Saharan Africa. During a two-year stay in Tanzania, he led a team of physicians and scientists at the Ifakara Health Institute, gaining extensive field experience as a scientific project leader and tuberculosis team leader. He later served as a chief cantonal public health officer in Switzerland, significantly contributing to the public health response during the COVID-19 pandemic, and applying epidemiological principles in practice. Now back at the University of Bern, he leads the tuberculosis projects within IeDEA Southern Africa, including a multi-cohort study spanning five tuberculosis cohorts in a region disproportionately affected by the tuberculosis and HIV epidemics. His experience enables him to bridge theory and practice, connecting academia with public health challenges.

Gem is an epidemiologist with a PhD in Public Health.  Her research interests include topics related to the public health approach to treating HIV in Southern Africa, including describing long-term trends in the characteristics and treatment outcomes among people with HIV receiving treatment. Her areas of research have included the implementation of differentiated service delivery models of care, CD4 and viral load monitoring strategies for antiretroviral therapy programmes and more recently, advanced HIV disease and treatment failure in the era of widespread access to antiretroviral therapy, with a particular focus on treatment options for paediatric and adolescent populations. 

Michael is a Professor for Biostatistics working under the German Research Foundations Heisenberg Program at the Department of Statistics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München, Germany. He is also an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he has been working for more than a decade as part of IeDEA-SA. His research interests include the development and application of modern causal inference methods to challenging longitudinal observational databases, for example in the context missing data, survival data and for continuous exposures. He is interested in pediatric HIV research on both optimal treatment strategies and antiretroviral target concentrations.

Nicky is the Senior Data Scientist for the IeDEA-SA South Africa cohort, a role she has held since joining the collaboration in 2007. Prior to that, she worked as the Data Manager for the Khayelitsha cohort, following her return from the UK, where she spent several years as a Surveillance Officer with the Health Protection Agency. Nicky has a background in pediatric nursing and brings a passion for tackling complex data challenges. She is also a keen Stata enthusiast, always eager to explore new ways of working with data.

Leigh is an epidemiologist and actuary, with a particular interest in the modelling of HIV and other diseases. He leads the development of the Thembisa model, an integrated HIV, TB and demographic model for South Africa. He also leads the development of MicroCOSM, an agent-based model of the social determinants of HIV and other STIs in South Africa. He is a co-chair of the UNAIDS Reference Group on Estimates, Modelling and Projections, and is a member of the editorial boards of ‘Infectious Disease Modelling’ and ‘Journal of the International AIDS Society’.

Andreas Haas received a Master of Arts in Social Research from Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2011, and a PhD in Health Sciences (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) from the University of Bern in 2016. He completed postdoctoral training in HIV epidemiology and global mental health at Columbia University in 2018–2019 and obtained his Habilitation (venia docendi) in Epidemiology from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bern in 2023.

Since 2021, he has been Head of the Mental Health Research Group at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), University of Bern, and a Research Fellow in the HIV Research Group at ISPM since 2011. His research focuses on psychiatric and HIV epidemiology in sub-Saharan Africa.

Marie Ballif holds a PhD and an MSc in Public Health and brings over 15 years of experience as a senior researcher in public and global health, with a particular focus on HIV and tuberculosis. Passionate about tackling disparities, she applies her transdisciplinary expertise in public health, epidemiology, and microbiology to advance equitable healthcare access.

Andrew was co-Principal Investigator of IeDEA-SA from its inception until 2011. During this time, he completed his PhD on the effectiveness of ART in Khayelitsha and in the Western Cape, following adults for up to five years on ART and examining temporal trends over seven years, during a time when ART services expanded dramatically in the province. Andrew currently holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor in the Division of Public Health Medicine, UCT, and as a Public Health specialist in the Health Impact Assessment Directorate of the Western Cape Department of Health.

Cam Ha is a Senior Data Manager with a background in software engineering and a strong focus in data science. She has built a robust career as a data expert, specializing in data architecture, integration, data visualization and governance. Since joining the consortium she has significantly raised standards of data collection and data quality through enhanced process, monitoring and customized reporting tools. With her technical expertise, she also supports research study design to ensure high quality and efficiency. Passionate about translating technical solutions into practical research values, she helps multidisciplinary teams trust and leverage their data. Most recently, she successfully led the development of a universal data quality tool for longitudinal studies and cohort data.

She is reponsible for data of IeDEA-SA cohorts in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe and works in close collaboration with the Data Manager at UCT who is responsible for cohorts within South Africa.