Dr. Amit Mistry from NIH Visit to UoN

Dr. Amit Mistry a Senior Scientist at the Center for Global Health Studies, Fogarty International Center, U.S National Institutes of Health (NIH) visited the Advancing Public Health Research in Eastern Africa through Data Science Training (APHREA-DST) Project, at the University of Nairobi on 5th March 2024. APHREA-DST project is supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund and is part of the “Harnessing Data Science for Health Discovery and Innovation in Africa” program (DS-I Africa).

Dr. Amit Mistry, (NIH), Prof. Kiros Berhane, Columbia University, Prof. Patrick Weke, PI, APHREA-DST, University of Nairobi, APHREA-DST Team, and MSc Public Health Data Science Students Representatives.

Dr. Mistry first paid a courtesy call to the Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology, Prof. John Onyari, accompanied by the Chairman of the Department of Computing and Informatics, represented by Prof. Elisha Abade and the PI of APHREA-DST Nairobi, Prof. Patrick Weke. Later, he held a consultative meeting with the APHREA-DST team where they briefed him on the project milestones and activities. The first and second cohort of Faculty Scholars also shared the experiences and benefits gained through the SHARP courses, the faculty mentorship by CU Faculty mentors, as well as their visit to Columbia University. 

​Dr. Mistry culminated his visit by giving a talk to the MS Public Health Data Science students, the APHREA-DST team who were joined by Prof. Kiros Berhane, the lead PI of APHREA-DST, on the National Institute of Health and stated that its mission is to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. He indicated that they have an annual budget of $48 billion for biomedical and health research and research conducted and supported across 27 Institutes and Centers being one of the largest research funders in the US.

After the presentation, there was an interactive Q&A session with the students and Dr. Mistry encouraged students to do research work that was impactful to society and publish good papers.