The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) met virtually for the annual review of activities at AHRI on Tuesday 1st June and Thursday 3rd June 2021. Present at the meeting were the following board members: Prof. Gunnar Bjune (University of Oslo, Norway), Prof. Francesca Chiodi (Karolinska Institute, Sweden), Dr. John David Clemens (ICCDR, Bangladesh), Prof. Hazel Dockrell (LSTHM, UK), and Prof. Tsige Gebremariam (Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia).
Chaired by Prof. Tsige Gebremariam, SAB members listened to reports from the General Director (AHRI), Dr. Abebe Genetu, with regards to Financial and Technical reports for the year 2019/20. In addition, Deputy General Director, Dr. Alemseged Abdissa, briefed the SAB on COVID-19 related updates for the reporting year.
During the series of engagements, presentations from the scientific directors and senior scientists on research and other activities conducted during 2019/20 were presented to the board. Furthermore, SAB members held a separate virtual meeting with the Ph.D. and Master students who are the core of AHRI.
The two-day presentations provided a comprehensive and impressive account of the activities of the Institute. It was well noted that research at AHRI continues to be extraordinary despite the global disruptions from the pandemic. The SAB congratulated AHRI’s General Director, Dr. Abebe Genetu, and Deputy General Director, Dr. Alemseged Abdissa and the staff of AHRI on their achievements over the last year’s progress, as reflected in the presentations and the Annual Report.