Tunde Salako

Director General, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research

Professor Babatunde Lawal Salako is a seasoned physician, teacher, researcher and administrator. He is currently the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research. Before his current appointment, he worked as a Professor of Nephrology at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan and an Honorary Consultant Physician and Nephrologist at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. He became the Head of Department of Medicine in 2011 and was the Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan between 2014 and 2016.

His foray into the world of Medicine began in 1986 when he obtained a Bachelor's degree in Medicine and Surgery from the University of Ibadan and further went on to become a Fellow of the West African Postgraduate Medical College in 1994. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in 2014 and Royal College of Physicians of London in 2016. Professor Salako was the Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association in Oyo State between 2002–2004, Editor of the Tropical Journal of Nephrology 2005–2012, Assistant Editor-in-Chief of the African Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences 2012–2014, and President of the Nigerian Association of Nephrology 2016–2018.

As a demonstration of his consistent scholarship, he won a number of grants to carry out research activities on hypertension, such as the University Senate Research grants, MacArthur Foundation Research Grant and, in the last 5 years, three NIH grants as both site PI and in a project with multiple PIs in collaboration with the Department of Public Health Sciences of Loyola University Chicago, University of Michigan USA, University of Arizona and the University of Ghana. He is a member of the General Assembly of the EDCTP, the WHO/TDR Joint Coordinating Board, and was the chair of the Disease Endemic Committee of the TDR 2019–2021. He has more than 170 published articles to his credit.