Fredros Okumu is Professor of Vector Biology (Infectious Disease Ecology) at the University of Glasgow’s School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine. He previously served as Director of Science at Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania from 2016 to 2023, where he continues to work as a senior scientist. He is a public health researcher and mosquito biologist focusing on improving approaches to controlling vector-borne diseases.

He serves on several international committees, including the World Health Organization’s Malaria Policy Advisory Group, the Gates Foundation’s Malaria Strategic Advisory Panel, and the University of California San Francisco’s Malaria Elimination Initiative. He is also a Science Advisor for the African Diaspora Network. He co-founded the African Conversations initiative, which tracks African stakeholders’ views and concerns on emerging technologies, including gene drives.

He is also the founding director of VectorGrid-Africa, the first large-scale observatory of mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases in Africa.