The 100 Most Influential People of 2022 – Tulio de Oliveira and Sikhulile Moyo

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Tulio de Oliveira and Sikhulile Moyo. Illustration by Brian Lutz for Time (Source Photos: Nyani Quarmyne/Panos Pictures/Redux; Courtesy Sikhulile Moyo/ProPhoto Studios Gaborone)
Tulio de Oliveira and Sikhulile Moyo. Illustration by Brian Lutz for Time (Source Photos: Nyani Quarmyne/Panos Pictures/Redux; Courtesy Sikhulile Moyo/ProPhoto Studios Gaborone)

Scientists in Africa have been monitoring and sequencing pathogens since long before the pandemic. The world benefited from this network when scientists including Sikhulile Moyo, laboratory director for the Botswana-­Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory, and Tulio de Oliveira, director of South Africa’s Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, identified and reported the emergence of the Omicron variant last November. It was a transformational moment and a shift in paradigm—one that for me symbolized that excellence in science can originate in Africa.

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