← Back

Prof. Philip Bejon

Principal Investigator


Biography

Philip first came to Kenya in 2002 to conduct Phase I and IIb clinical trials of a candidate malaria vaccine based on viral vectors, working between the Jenner at University of Oxford and KEMRI-Wellcome. He returned to Oxford in 2006 to complete specialist clinical training as a clinical lecturer, and was appointed as a senior fellow in the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre in 2009. He remained active in malaria research during these posts, leading further trials of GSK’s candidate malaria vaccine “RTS,S”, and as a member of the Malaria Vectored Vaccine Consortium funded to test viral vectored malaria vaccines in several sites in Africa including Kenya. He was awarded an MRC Clinician-Scientist Fellowship in 2013 which allowed him to return to be resident full-time in Kenya again in 2013, working on malaria epidemiology.He has been the Executive Director of the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme from September 2014 to January 2024. He enjoys opportunities to be involved in community engagement activities and fieldwork, and continue to be involved in patient care and clinical research where he can. He introduced real-time data entry with a field team during his PhD, and the Programme relies increasingly on direct electronic data entry. He has expertise in designing and leading clinical trials, field surveillance, laboratory science and statistical and modelling analyses, and also enjoys collaborating with colleagues in entomology and social sciences.