Prof. Samuel Kariuki (DVM, MSc, PhD) obtained his DVM from the University of Nairobi (1989), MSc in Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Nairobi (1991), and a PhD in Tropical Medicine from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) in 1997. He was awarded Doctor of Science (Honoris causa) by the LSTM in December 2022.
Sam Kariuki is currently Africa Continental Lead and Office Director, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) overseeing activities towards control and elimination of NTDs endemic in Africa. Previously, he was Acting Director General at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) (2021-2023) and Director of Research and Development (2018-2022). He is Fellow, African Academy of Sciences and Honorary Faculty, Wellcome Sanger Institute, visiting Professor of Tropical Microbiology, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, and the Ohio State University One-Health Initiative. He is also a member of the American Society for Microbiology, the National Academy of Medicine, US, and the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Over the last 24 years his team has researched on the One Health approaches in epidemiology and genomics of AMR and genomic surveillance of key enteric pathogens endemic in Kenya and the region. Their findings have been instrumental in informing policy change in first line-treatment, prevention and control strategies for key enteric pathogens including cholera, typhoid fever, invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella disease. Sam led in the development and publishing of the Kenya AMR situational analysis (2015) drafting of the country’s National Action Plan to combat and control AMR in a one health approach. He has published over 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals and written 4 chapters in textbooks of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, majoring in Genomics and Epidemiology of enteric pathogens endemic in Kenya and the region. He is a member of the National Antimicrobial Stewardship Interagency Committee (NASIC) advising Ministry of Health on One Health approach in implementation of the National Action Plan to combat AMR, and a member of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Antimicrobial Resistance (STAG-AMR).