Obituary : Death of Dr. Leonard Mboe …

Obituary : Death of Dr. Leonard Mboe …

Dr Leonard E.G. Mboera, BVM, MSc., PhD, DIC

It is with great sorrow to note and inform the SACIDS community the death of our colleague Dr Lenard Mboera, today 29th December 2022.  Leonard was a uniquely gifted scientist: graduated as a veterinarian in 1985 from Sokoine University of Agriculture and his career had flourished in Public Health, initially in entomology and expanded to the ecology of infectious diseases.  Much of his early career with the Tanzania National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) was dominated by work on Malaria. This evolved when he was promoted to the position of Chief Research Scientist in NIMR and later when he joined the SACIDS Foundation for One Health at Sokoine University of Agriculture to focus on Emerging and Vector-borne Diseases. So, when he retired from NIMR, we, in SACIDS, were honoured that he agreed to lead our research group on Emerging and Vector-borne Diseases, focusing on arboviral diseases of humans and animals. He has been a true One Health scientist within the SACIDS international fraternity. Notably he led two international partnership projects between SACIDS and European institutions on Epidemic Preparedness (PANDORA) and he has also been leading our partnership project with the Korean National Institute of Health for risk assessment and developing diagnostic capability for early detection emerging/re-emerging viral epidemic diseases. In our recent restructuring of the SACIDS research programme we had agreed with him to oversee our outcome-based programme on viral epidemics interacting with our specialists in genomics, data sciences and social sciences. Notwithstanding his recent illness, Leonard was already starting to develop a Community of Practice with several institutions within SACIDS (Tanzania, Mozambique and South African) and,  between SACIDS and external institutions.

Leonard was a member of several Technical Advisory Committees, especially in disease surveillance and epidemic emergency preparedness systems. He was a prolific writer (over 200 peer reviewed papers, several policy briefs and scientific book-chapters).

Leonard had a fertile scientific, inquisitive mind: which we will miss.

Leonard: we, your science colleagues will miss you, I will miss you in SACIDS. But most of all, our SACIDS PhD students registered at Sokoine University of Agriculture and Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences will miss your weekly attendance of their seminars and the guidance that you have been giving them across a diversity of topics

May you rest in peace. Leonard: A DEUS!!

Professor Mark M. Rweyemamu BVSc, PhD, FRCVS
Executive Director, SACIDS Foundation for One Health
Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Tanzania
Visiting Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, SUA, Tanzania
Visiting Professor, Royal Veterinary College, University of London

Previous Director Of HR and Administration

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