Professor Alan Christoffels was awarded the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO)-Africa prize on 17th March 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the International Human Genome Meeting. An international committee unanimously decided that Alan was to receive this prize in recognition for the scientific leadership and vision he has provided on the African continent. His research projects since returning to South Africa in 2007 has focused on diseases prevalent in Africa. For example, he has been part of the executive team that has led a tsetse genome project in Africa that culminated in the publication of the Tsetse genome in Science journal. Over the past three years he has contributed to the Human, heredity and health in Africa programme, first as a member of a working group to design a funding framework for genomics research in Africa, and subsequently his involvement in genomics projects such as computational tools for use in infectious disease research such as tuberculosis.
