About Us
Meet the HE²AT Partners and Teams
The HE²AT Center is a collaborative research initiative led by leading institutions across Africa and globally. The center focuses on addressing the health impacts of heat and climate change through innovative, data-driven research and interventions. By leveraging the strengths of each partner, the HE²AT Center aims to advance climate adaptation and resilience strategies that mitigate the growing health threats posed by rising global temperatures.
Our Partner
Wits Planetary Health Research (Wits PHR)
Wits PHR plays a vital role in global planetary health research for the HE²AT Center. Their expertise in understanding how rising temperatures affect the health of mothers and young children in Africa informs localized interventions aimed at enhancing resilience to heat impacts.
Prof Matthew Chersich, Principal Investigator
Matthew Chersich is the Director and a Research Professor at the Wits Planetary Health Research Division, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and a Research Fellow in Public Health and Primary Care at Trinity College, Dublin. He is the Principal Investigator for the HE²AT Center.
Wits PHR Team
Elizabeth Frederick
Craig Parker
Dr. Nicholas Brink
Dr. Darshnika Lakhoo
Ijeoma Solarin
Reneilwe Satekge
Nontokozo Langa
Amy Beukes
Our Partner
Center for Sexual Health HIV/AIDS Research Zimbabwe (CeSHHAR)
The Centre for Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Research Zimbabwe (CeSHHAR) plays a vital role in community-based research and implementation projects for the HE²AT Center. Their expertise in sexual health and public health research informs localized interventions aimed at enhancing resilience to heat impacts.
Prof Stanley Luchters, Co-Principal Investigator
Stanley Luchters is the Deputy Director of the HE²AT Center and a Professor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), UK. He is also the Director of CeSSHAR, Zimbabwe. He provides leadership in community health and resilience initiatives across southern Africa.
CeSSHAR Team
Fortunate Machingura
Cherlynn Dumbura
Pamela Mutsinze
Admire Kokerai
Tatenda Prestige Makanga
Thabani Muronze
Jetina Tsvaki
Reason Mlambo
Our Partner
IBM Research Africa
The focus for IBM Research Africa is in the development of artificial intelligence methods and technological solutions for the HE²AT Center, contributing to urban heat mapping, vulnerability assessment and eventually the development of the heat early warning system.
Dr Sibusisiwe Makhanya, Co-Principal Investigator
Sibusisiwe Makhanya is a research scientist and senior manager of the IBM Research Africa Johannesburg lab. As Co-PI, she leads the strategic and resource planning for the project for the IBM team. Her technical interest and contributions lie in guiding the development of geospatial models for hazard and vulnerability mapping, the heat-health modelling. On the latter, her interest is in the applicability of explainable and causal learning methods.
IBM Team
Etienne Vos
Technical Leader
Etienne Vos is a research scientist and manager of a team that is focused on the development of artificial intelligence models and technologies applicable in the domain of climate and sustainability. He is the technical leader of the IBM Research Africa team working on aspects of urban scale heat mapping, forecasting and heat early warning system development.
Richard A. Young
Research Software Engineer
Gciniwe (neé Dlamini) Baloyi
Research Scientist
Gciniwe Baloyi is a research scientist whose focus has been on the generation of large scale datasets of heat indices, the validation of urban heat hazard mapping models developed by the team and contributing to the development of models for the impact of heat on health.
Tamara Govindasamy
Research Scientist
Tamara Govindasamy is a Research Scientist and her focus is on urban scale heat hazard mapping & forecasting and vulnerability mapping. She is also an M-PI in a supplementary project of the HE²AT Center, focusing on the characterisation of air Quality for studying the impact of heat and poor air quality on maternal and child health. Her technical background is in atmospheric physics and artificial intelligence.
Craig Mahlasi
Research Scientist
Craig is a research scientist and his focus is on urban scale heat hazard mapping & forecasting and vulnerability mapping leveraging artificial intelligence and his expertise in geographic information sciences and remote sensing.
Muaaz Bhamjee
Research Scientist
Muaaz Bhamjee is a senior research scientist focused on urban scale heat hazard mapping & forecasting, leveraging his expertise in thermal and fluid dynamics modelling and artificial intelligence.
Nduta Nyoike
Project Administrative Support
Provide administrative support to the team on tracking of time, billing and compliance with internal IBM governments project management controls. Based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Phumeza Tanda
Administrative Support
Administrative support to the IBM Research lab in South Africa. Provides support to the management team, especially Sibusisiwe and Etienne Vos.
Our Partner
University of Cape Town (UCT), Climate System Analysis Group (CSAG)
The Climate System Analysis Group (CSAG) at UCT provides essential climate modeling and analysis expertise for the HE²AT Center. Their research helps quantify and predict climate-related hazards, including extreme heat events, across Africa.
Dr. Christopher Jack, Co-Principal Investigator
Christopher Jack is the Deputy Director of CSAG at UCT and co-leads Research Project 2 (RP2) on climate hazard mapping and vulnerability assessment. He plays a key role in integrating climate data into health risk analyses.
CSAG Team
Alice McClure
Bruce Hewitson
Rodger Duffett
Lisa van Aardenne
Piotr Wolski
Pierre Kloppers
Sabina Omar
Peter Marsh
Our Partner
Université Peleforo Gon Coulibaly (UPGC)
UPGC contributes to the HE²AT Center through research on environmental health and climate resilience, focusing on West Africa. Their expertise supports the adaptation of climate interventions to local contexts.
Prof Guéladio Cissé, Co-Principal Investigator
Guéladio Cissé is a former Professor in sanitary engineering and environmental epidemiology, and Head of the Ecosystem Health Sciences Unit at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel, Switzerland. He is Adjunct Professor at Peleforo Gon Coulibaly Unversity of Korhogo (UPGC), serves as Co-PI at HE²AT and co-leads one of its research projects (RP2), while leading country-level projects in Ivory Coast.
Our Partner
University of Washington (UW)
The University of Washington contributes its extensive expertise in environmental health research to the HE²AT Center. Their focus is on developing adaptation frameworks to protect vulnerable populations from heat-related health impacts.
Dr Kristie L. Ebi, Co-Principal Investigator
Dr. Kristie L. Ebi is a Professor in Global Health and Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences. She provides leadership on climate change adaptation strategies, focusing on evidence-based policy development and health risk reduction.
Our Partner
University of Michigan (UW)
The University of Michigan supports the HE²AT Center through advanced data analytics, machine learning applications, and health outcome modeling. Their expertise helps identify the drivers of heat vulnerability and design predictive tools for public health interventions.
Prof Akbar K. Waljee
Akbar K. Waljee is a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan and Associate Director of the Data and Methods Hub at the UM Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation (IHPI). He also leads efforts to integrate predictive modeling tools within HE²AT to improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations.
