Dr. Gershim Asiki (Co-Investigator)

Dr Gershim is a public health physician with a PhD in Epidemiology from Karolinska Institute, Sweden and over 10 years of research experience with a major focus on non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Before undertaking a research career, he was a frontline physician in rural Uganda and later in urban Kampala, Uganda. This provided a firm foundation to understand the health needs of both rural and urban populations in low and middle income countries. He worked with the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit in Uganda as a study coordinator and later senior research scientist in Uganda for 7 years and later with Columbia University ICAP program as a Technical Advisor for national HIV surveys in Uganda, Namibia and Cameroon for 2 years. From 2017, he joined the African Population and Health Research center (APHRC) in Nairobi as a Research Scientist leading the NCD research program focusing on cardiovascular diseases epidemiology and strengthening health systems for chronic diseases management in Africa. Besides investigating other NCD risk factors at population level in Kenya and Uganda, most recently he played a key role in the “Dietary transitions in African cities” project that explored factors associated with food consumption patterns and practices in Nairobi, Kenya in collaboration with investigators from University of Ghana UK and New Zealand. He has mentored several junior researchers and continues to support the APHRC flagship program for strengthening research capacity across Africa.