Christian T. Happi

Christian T. Happi is a Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics and Director of the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) at Redeemer’s University in Nigeria. After completing his postdoctoral training at Harvard University, he returned to Africa to dedicate his career to building scientific capacity among young African researchers.

He became the first African researcher to sequence the SARS-CoV-2 genome on the continent, within 48 hours of receiving a sample from Nigeria’s index case. He also confirmed the first Ebola case in Nigeria within six hours, helping contain the outbreak and saving millions of lives. To date, he has published over 230 peerreviewed articles and trained more than 2,500 young scientists from 53 African countries.