Merton alumnus awarded OBE for research in tuberculosis prevention and treatment

Merton alumnus Professor Robert J Wilkinson (1984, Clinical Medicine), lead researcher in tuberculosis prevention and treatment in the UK and South Africa, has been appointed the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the King’s New Year Honours List for services to infectious disease research. 

Professor Wilkinson is Principal Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute, where he runs the Tuberculosis Laboratory. He is also Professor in Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London and Honorary Professor at the University of Cape Town, where he directs the university’s Wellcome Discovery Research Platform for Infection.

His research investigates the interaction between tuberculosis and the immune response to find better ways to understand, prevent and treat the disease, particularly in those co-infected with HIV. Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the world’s commonest diseases, estimated to infect up to a quarter of the global population and causing around 1.3 million deaths every year.

Professor Wilkinson also established the Crick Africa Network in 2017, to support African scientists working in The Gambia, Ghana, South Africa, Senegal and Uganda.

Professor Wilkinson said about this appointment: 

'Although awards are made to individuals, in my case this reflects my fortune in working with many hundreds of excellent people over many years to foster high quality research and a good research culture. I am very grateful therefore to those colleagues who should interpret this as an endorsement of their great contribution and thank my nominator and those who supported that nomination.'