Dr Abraham Aseffa is a Senior Scientist (formerly Director) at the Armauer Hansen Research Institute in Ethiopia. He graduated in Medicine from Addis Ababa University (1984) and studied Microbiology at the University of Leipzig, Germany (Dr. med, 1990, summa cum laude). He taught Microbiology at Gondar College of Medical Sciences (Ethiopia) until 1998 when he joined the WHO Immunology and RT at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland for postdoctoral research. He moved to AHRI in Addis as senior scientist in 2001. Dr Aseffa has conducted several studies on infectious disease microbiology, immunology and epidemiology in collaboration with national and international partners (>300 publications). He has keen interest in postgraduate student training. He works closely with the Min of Health in Ethiopia on capacity building for clinical and operational research and on translation of research findings into practice. Dr Aseffa has also been active on strengthening regional partnership particularly in clinical trial capacity building and health research ethics. He has served in several WHO/TDR, WHO and EDCTP advisory bodies. He is a member of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS).