About our Guests
Punam Amratia, PhD, is a Senior Research Scientist and the Technical Lead of Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) Dar es Salaam office, located at Ifakara Health Institute, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and affiliated to the Telethon Kids Institute and Curtin University in Perth in WA, Australia.
With over a decade of experience in malaria epidemiology, biostatistics, and geo-spatial modelling, Dr. Amratia has established herself as a leader in the field, contributing significantly to the understanding and mapping of malaria risk and burden.
Through her work, she has provided essential technical support to more than 14 countries, specializing in cutting-edge geospatial modelling frameworks that leverage multiple metrics from surveillance systems and support strategic decision making.
As a skilled educator, Dr. Amratia has developed and taught introductory data science courses at the University of Oxford and as part of the Carpentries and R-ladies, focusing on data handling, manipulation, and visualization. As the Alan Magill Fellow 2024, Dr. Amratia is playing a pivotal role in capacity strengthening in many malaria-endemic countries through the development of spatial training material and continues to support the learning of those interested in Geostatistics and Data Science.
Fredros Okumu, PhD (Director of Science – Ifakara Health Institute) is a Professor of Vector Biology (Infectious Disease Ecology) at the University of Glasgow, School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine. He was formerly the Director of Science at Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania (2016-2023), where he continues to work as a senior scientist. He is a public health researcher and a mosquito biologist working on improved approaches for control of vector-borne diseases.
Fredros is also passionate about improving ecosystems for young researchers in Africa. He serves in various advisory groups including WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG) and the Gates Foundation’s Malaria Strategic Advisory Panel (MSAP).
For more information about Fredros and his work, please visit the Malaria Elimination Initiative’s website at https://shrinkingthemalariamap.org.
