Prof Lynn Morris is the Interim Executive Director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and Principal Medical Scientist in the HIV Virology Section, Centre for HIV & STI’s, NICD.
She holds a joint appointment as a Research Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand and is an Honorary Senior Scientist (Humoral Immunity) at the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA).
Prof Morris completed her undergraduate studies at Wits University and obtained a DPhil from the University of Oxford, UK, in 1988. She is a South African National Research Foundation (NRF) A-rated Researcher (international leader) who has for the past 25 years been studying the immunovirology of South African HIV-1 subtype C infection, making significant contributions to understanding how the antibody response to HIV develops.
HIV vaccine development is a major focus of Prof Morris' Research and her laboratory is responsible for performing neutralizing antibody assays on human clinical trials conducted in South Africa. Her contributions have been recognized through several National and International Awards which includes the University of the Witwatersrand’s Vice-Chancellor Research Award (2014), the South African Medical Research Council’s Gold Merit Award (2015), a Harry Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Fellowship Award (2017) and the World Academy of Sciences Prize in Medical Sciences (2018).
Prof Morris has Supervised 30 PhD and MSc students, has Published over 240 papers holding a current Author H-Index of 56 and features on the Clarivate (previously Thomson Reuters) ISI list of the highest cited researchers in the world.
