Rate My Professor Helen Rees

Professor Helen Rees is the founder and Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) at the University of the Witwatersrand, the university’s largest research institute and a UNAIDS collaborating centre. She is a Personal Professor in the University of the Witwatersrand’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology within the Faculty of Health Sciences and serves as Co-Director of the Wits African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE) programme. Professor Rees obtained her medical degree and a Master’s in Social and Political Sciences from Murray Edwards College at Cambridge University, where she is now an Honorary Fellow. Her additional qualifications include BA, MB BCh, DCH, MA (Cambridge), MRCGP, MRCOG, DRCOG, and she is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Senior Executive Programme for Southern Africa. She holds honorary doctorates including a D.Sc. (Medicine) honoris causa from the University of London and an LLD honoris causa from Rhodes University. She is also an Honorary Professor in the Department of Clinical Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Professor Rees has dedicated her career to advancing public health in Africa, with particular emphasis on vaccine-preventable diseases, HIV, sexual and reproductive health, and regulatory science. She has authored or co-authored more than 250 academic papers and has played key leadership roles in responses to major health crises including Ebola, COVID-19, and mpox. Her contributions include chairing or serving on numerous international bodies such as WHO committees, the International Vaccine Institute Board of Trustees, Gavi, CEPI, and IAVI boards, as well as South Africa’s National Advisory Group on Immunization. Professor Rees has received numerous awards including the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), the South African National Order of the Baobab (GCOB), the French National Order of Merit, the Platinum South African National Batho Pele Award, and the 2025 WHO Dr Lee Jong-wook Memorial Prize for Public Health. She is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and has been recognised among leading voices shaping health across Africa.