Professor Glenda Gray is a Distinguished Professor in the Infectious Disease and Oncology Research Institute in the Faculty of Health sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand and Chief Scientific Officer, South African Medical Research Council, Executive Director at the Perinatal HIV Research Unit, and Professor in the Vaccine & Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center. Qualified as a Medical Doctor, specialising in Paediatrics, she started her research career in the field of preventing mother to child transmission of HIV-1 (PMTCT).

She is the Co-PI of the NIH funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), the international network that conducts over 80% of the clinical trials of candidate HIV vaccines globally.  She served as a Protocol Co-Chair of the multi-country Ensemble Study investigating the single-dose Ad26.COV2.S vaccine as an emergency response intervention. She led the phase 3B trial Ad26.CoV.2 vaccine trial in South Africa, vaccinating almost 500 000 health care workers that provided the first reassurance of vaccine effectiveness against emerging variants of concern. She is the national principal of the Biovac Oral Cholera Vaccine the first end to end African vaccine developed that is being evaluated for safety and efficacy. She is part of the leadership of the BRILLIANT consortium, aimed at developing African capability to contribute to HIV vaccine R&D.

For her research in HIV, she has been awarded: the Nelson Mandela Health and Human Rights Award (2002); the IAPAC Hero in Medicine Award (2003); the Ngaly-Mann lectureship at CROI (2010); awarded two Honorary Doctorates in Science from the Simon Fraser University (2013) and Stellenbosch University (2017); an honorary Doctorate in Law in 2019(Rhodes University); the Order of Mapungubwe, the highest honour given by the President for achievements in the international area which have served RSA’s interests (2013). She received the EDCTP outstanding African Scientist Award (2013) and the World Academy of Sciences award for building scientific capacity in Africa (2016). She is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, the World Academy of Science, the African Academy of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the Academy of Science of South Africa.