Sikhulile Moyo is a Zimbabwean virologist working as the laboratory director of the Botswana–Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership and a research associate at the

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first ...

. In November 2021, Moyo and his laboratory were the first to identify the

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant Omicron (B.1.1.529) is a variant of SARS-CoV-2 first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa on 24 November 2021. It was first detected in Botswana and has spread to become the ...

. In 2022, Moyo was listed in the

Time 100 ''Time'' 100 (often stylized as ''TIME'' 100) is an annual listicle of the 100 most influential people in the world, assembled by the American news magazine ''Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, po ...

list.

Early life and education

Moyo was born in Zimbabwe. He completed an undergraduate degree at the

University of Zimbabwe The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is a public university in Harare, Zimbabwe. It opened in 1952 as the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and was initially affiliated with the University of London. It was later renamed the University o ...

in 1996. He completed a master's degree in applied

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

at the

University of Botswana The University of Botswana, popularly known as UB, was established in 1982 as the first institution of higher education in Botswana. The university has three campuses: one in the capital city Gaborone, one in Francistown, and another in Maun. T ...

in 2000. In 2006, Moyo completed a M.P.H. at the University of Limpopo (MEDUNSA-campus). His thesis was titled ''Modelling the HIV / AIDS in Botswana: the representativeness of the ANC based estimates of HIV prevalence in Botswana and implications for monitoring the epidemic''. Moyo completed a Ph.D. in

medical virology Medical microbiology, the large subset of microbiology that is applied to medicine, is a branch of medical science concerned with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. In addition, this field of science studies various ...

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

in 2016.

Tulio de Oliveira Tulio de Oliveira is a Brazilian, Portuguese, and South African permanent resident professor of bioinformatics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and associate professor of global health at the Universit ...

was one of his professors. His dissertation was titled ''Evolutionary trends and dynamics of HIV-1C in Botswana''.

Career

Moyo joined the Botswana–Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership in 2003 as a lab assistant. He later became the laboratory coordinator, deputy manager, and then lab manager in 2016. As of November 2021, Moyo is the laboratory director. He is also a research associate in immunology and infectious diseases at the

. In November 2021, Moyo and his laboratory were the first to identify the

. Upon discovery, they alerted the Botswanan Ministry of Health on November 22, 2021. In 2022, Moyo was listed in the

list.

Personal life

Moyo is married and has two sons and a daughter. He is a gospel singer and composer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moyo, Sikhulile Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Zimbabwean biologists Virologists 21st-century biologists University of Zimbabwe alumni University of Botswana alumni Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University alumni Stellenbosch University alumni Harvard School of Public Health faculty HIV/AIDS researchers