Public Health alumnus receives Haas International Award

UC Berkeley School of Public Health alumnus Dr. Moses R. Kamya, MPH ’95, has been honored with a 2022 Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award from UC Berkeley.

The award was established in 1964 and honors an alum who is a native, citizen, and resident of another country and who has a distinguished record of service to that country.

Dr. Kamya is a Ugandan physician, academic, and researcher and is a professor of medicine at the Makerere University School of Medicine in Kampala, Uganda, where he is also the former dean. He is a founding member of the Makerere University Joint AIDS Program (MJAP), the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), and the Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration (IDRC) in Uganda.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Kamya has been researching and teaching infectious diseases with a particular interest in malaria, HIV, and the interaction between the two. He is also the chair of the Uganda Ministry of Health (MoH) National AIDS Advisory and Malaria Scientific Advisory Committees. Dr. Kamya has a passion for mentoring young African scientists.

In 2018, the UC Berkeley School of Public Health selected Dr. Kamya as one of the 75 most influential public health alumni over the college’s 75-year history.

In a letter informing Dr. Kamya that he had been selected as a recipient of the Haas award, UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ wrote, “Some reasons why you are deserving of this award include your work in the studying and treatment of malaria, HIV/AIDS, and diverse other infectious diseases, as well as your unwavering commitment to improving the health of the people of Uganda.”

“Dr. Kamya has had the kind of impactful career we hope all of our students can achieve when they leave Berkeley and find their place in the world,” said Dr. Arthur Reingold, who nominated Dr. Kamya for the award. “He took what he learned here at Berkeley and, combined with his other training and his remarkable personal attributes, has made the world a better place.”

Dr. Kamya was invited to a special UC Berkeley “Light the Way” event in Singapore on April 1, 2023, where he received the award in person from Chancellor Christ and Berkeley Public Health Dean Michael C. Lu.

At the event, Kamya gave a special thanks to Dr. Reingold, “who supported my studies at UCB and is my mentor and whose guidance, support, and encouragement have been instrumental in my success.”

“This means more to me than words could ever express and I’m filled with gratitude and joy”.