Wits Professor Shabir Madhi’s vaccine research has influenced WHO guidelines and immunisation programmes across the world. He just received one of the highest honours!
Johannesburg, South Africa (04 June 2026) – Professor Shabir Madhi, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits, has been named the 2026 recipient of the Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement.
The award is presented by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases in the United States, and recognises individuals who have made a difference to public health through science.
Prof Madhi’s impactful career, spanning three decades, has been built around vaccinology. In simple terms – understanding which vaccines work, how well they work, and making sure that evidence reaches the people and organisations that set global health policy.
Wits shares that his work on vaccines against pneumonia, diarrhoea, influenza and RSV has directly informed World Health Organisation recommendations.
Pneumococcal vaccines, which his research helped support, are estimated to have prevented hundreds of thousands of child deaths globally. When COVID-19 arrived, he led Africa’s first vaccine trials for the virus, which generated early evidence that then guided public health decisions across the continent.
Beyond his own research, he has spent years training the next generation of African scientists and co-founded the African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise initiative at Wits. He advises the WHO and chairs South Africa’s National Advisory Group on Immunisation.
This isn’t Prof Madhi’s first highly acclaimed accolade – he has received many over the years.
In 2023, King Charles III appointed him an honorary CBE. In 2024, he received the Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal for his contributions to vaccinology. Now, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases in the United States has named him the 2026 recipient of the Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement. It is one of the highest honours in the field, recognising lasting contributions to public health through science.
The award will be presented at a gala in Washington DC later this year.
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