Nicaise Ndembi

More than 21,000 people in Africa contracted mpox in 2024—a bad number that could have been much worse without the help of Nicaise Ndembi, then head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and now the deputy director general of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). In his time at AfricaCDC, Ndembi led the continent-wide response to mpox—strengthening surveillance and screening and providing vaccines and medicinal therapeutics—and also established the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing, which created a framework for regional vaccine manufacturing and self-reliance. In his new role at the IVI, he will work to establish home-grown vaccine research and development, accelerating vaccine availability and distribution across Africa’s 54 countries.