Professor Frank Tanser is a South African scientist whose research aims to evaluate and design intervention strategies to drive back the HIV epidemic and its negative consequences in communities hardest hit by the epidemic. His pivotal work over the past 25 years has provided substantial insights into the evolving and dynamic nature of the HIV epidemic and its key drivers, informing HIV prevention and treatment efforts in sub-Saharan Africa.
His research into the population-level impacts of the antiretroviral therapy (ART) roll-out has led to wide-reaching and rapid changes to government policy on how ART programmes in South Africa are designed and implemented. In particular, a seminal study he published in one of the world’s leading scientific journals – Science – was the first to show that nurse-led and decentralised HIV programmes in rural areas could be successful in reducing HIV transmission at the population-level.
Frank holds masters degrees from Imperial College London and Rhodes University and a doctorate from UKZN. He is a faculty member at AHRI and professor of global health at Stellenbosch University. He has served as a consultant and advisor to several high-profile organisations including the Mailman School of Public Health, USAID, the Futures Group International and UNAIDS. He currently serves on the board of The Lancet HIV and was member of the international scientific and technical advisory committee to the executive director of UNAIDS.
Frank has published over 250 papers in high-ranking international journals and his research has been cited over 33 000 times. He has been the recipient of numerous scientific grants and has raised over $85-million in external research funding to date. He is the founding director of the Lincoln International Institute for Rural Health – an international institute set up to study the health of rural populations across the globe. He was also a founder member of the Africa Centre for Population Health in 1998, and was responsible for building Africa’s first comprehensive population-based GIS system at the centre. In 2017 Frank was honoured by the South African Medical Research Council with the gold medal scientific achievement award in recognition of the excellence of his research. The award recognises outstanding scientists who have undertaken seminal research that has impacted directly on the health of populations in developing countries. In 2019, The Royal Geographical Society awarded him the Back Award for “conducting applied research that has made an outstanding contribution to the development of national or international public policy”.