Professor Glenda Gray is the Chief Scientific Officer at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and a Distinguished Professor and senior advisor to the Infectious Disease and Oncology Research Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, Wits University, Johannesburg. She is also a Professor in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Prof Gray leads the BRILLIANT Consortium, which aims to develop an HIV vaccine pipeline emanating from the African continent. She is the former President and CEO of the SAMRC, a position she held for two five-year terms. Prof Gray also co-founded and is a non-Executive Director of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU), in Soweto, South Africa. An A-Rated researcher, Prof Gray has been the recipient of multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is internationally known for her research in HIV vaccines and interventions to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Prof Gray’s research has focused on COVID-19 vaccine studies, paediatric treatment trials, large-scale HIV clinical trials, and TB, influenza and HPV vaccine studies in infants, children, adolescents and adults. She is co-Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and directs its programme in Africa. Prof Gray was Vice-Chair of the GARDP Board. She was also the Chair of South Africa’s Research Committee on COVID-19.

Prof Gray’s accolades over the years include the Outstanding Africa Scientist Award from the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, and South Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe, granted by the President of South Africa. She also received the N’Galy Mann Lectureship award, alongside Professor James McIntyre, at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). In recognition of her work in HIV, Forbes named Prof Gray as one of Africa’s 50 Most Powerful Women in 2020 while she was listed by The Times as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2017.

Prof Gray serves on the CEPI scientific advisory committee, has been a member of the WHO-Strategic Advisory Group for TB and has served on the World Health Organization/UNAIDS Vaccine Advisory Board, as well as the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for two vaccine studies in Africa. She chaired the standing committee on health for the Academy of Science and was appointed by South Africa’s Minister of Science, Innovation and Higher Education to the National Research Foundation and the University of Cape Town’s Council, after serving as a Member of the Wits University Council. As a member of the National Academy of Medicine, of the National Academies in the US, she served on the Board for Global Health.