Professor Hoosen Mahomed ‘Jerry’ Coovadia was born in Durban in 1940. He South African doctor and is currently (from July, 2003) the Scientific Director of the Doris Duke Medical Research Institute at the University of Natal, which is busy establishing itself as the premier centre for HIV/AIDS research in the developing world.
Jerry Coovadia is Victor Daitz Professor emeritus at University of KwaZulu-Natal in HIV/AIDS Research, and a member of the National Planning Commission.
He has published leading papers on the basic science and pathogenesis, clinical management, epidemiology, prevention, and contextual factors, for the major causes of morbidity, disability and mortality, among Africa’s children.
He and his group have the greatest experience and most authoritative publications on various aspects of the Nephrotic Syndrome disorder in African and Indian South Africans. They have contributed a number of chapters on this in major international nephrology texts. These publications have altered the approach to treatment of these disorders based on studies from developed countries.
He was appointed Associate Professor at the University of Natal in 1982 and Ad Hominem Professor in 1986. From 1990 to 2000, he served as Professor and Head of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Natal. Director of Biomedical Science at the Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking (HIVAN), and the scientific director of the Doris Duke Medical Research Institute at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine at the University of KwaZulu Natal.
He was awarded the 2013 AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility. He has also received the 1999 Star of South Africa Award from President Nelson Mandela and the 2000 Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights.