Simon Brooker joins ILRI from the Gates Foundation, where he served as Deputy Director for Neglected Tropical Diseases, leading strategic initiatives in data use, digital tools, and program delivery. Prior to joining the foundation in 2015, he was Professor of Epidemiology and a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where he led research on the epidemiology and control of infectious diseases in low-income settings.
Simon brings deep experience in East Africa, having spent five years based in Nairobi as a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow at the KEMRI–Wellcome Trust Research Programme. He is currently also an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington, USA.
He has served on and chaired several international advisory boards and WHO committees, and has received multiple honours, including the Distinguished Achievement Award from the World Federation of Parasitologists and the C.A. Wright Memorial Medal from the British Society for Parasitology. He holds a doctorate in infectious disease epidemiology and a bachelor's degree in human sciences from the University of Oxford, a master’s degree in economic evaluation of healthcare from City St George’s, University of London, and an MBA from The Open University