Ibrahim Abubakar is the Pro-Provost for Health and Dean of the Faculty of Population Health Sciences at University College London (UCL). He is a Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and previously served as the Head of Tuberculosis at Public Health England. Dr. Abubakar was also the Chair of the World Health Organization Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Tuberculosis until 2019. Currently, he chairs Lancet Migration, the Lancet Nigeria Commission, and the NIHR Global Professorship Panel.
Additionally, he has served on the Public Health Board of the Open Society Foundation and the MRC Global Health Board. Dr. Abubakar has also acted as a Scientific Adviser to the UK House of Lords Science of COVID-19 Review. Until July 2021, he was the Director of the UCL Institute for Global Health. Dr. Abubakar earned his medical degree from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. He holds an MSc from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a Diploma in Public Health from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD from the University of East Anglia. He is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and a UK NIHR Senior Investigator.