Christian Happi has been described as a force of nature.
For 20 years, I’ve seen that force up close—a limitless energy and will, and dedication to science and improving lives, that makes the impossible possible. It overcame harrowing obstacles as we pursued a deadly virus, Lassa, in rural Nigeria. It built the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) to educate future generations of African scientists and launched its Sentinel program to prevent and mitigate outbreaks.
And it led ACEGID and Sentinel in responding to COVID-19, Mpox, and Ebola, training thousands of frontline scientists from across Africa, and creating a world-class genome center in rural Nigeria.
Christian won’t rest until every child is safe from infectious disease, with African scientists leading the charge—because a force like his doesn’t just make history, it shapes the future.
Sabeti, a computational geneticist, is a member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard