Professor Helen Rees
GCOB, OBE, Officier de l'Ordre national du Mérite
D.Sc.(hc), LLD (hc), MRCGP, MA and MB BChir (CANTAB), DRCOG, DCH, FAAS, ASSAF
Executive Director of Wits RHI, University of Witwatersrand. Professor Helen Rees studied Medical Sciences at our College from 1971. She became an Honorary Fellow of our College in 2015.
Helen Rees is the founder and Executive Director of Wits RHI of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg where she is also an Ad Hominem Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases of the Clinical Research Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she is also the Heath Clark lecturer for 2010. Professor Rees received her Medical Degree and a Masters in Social and Political Sciences from Cambridge University and in 2002 became an alumnus of Harvard Business School. She holds a Doctor of Science (Medicine) honoris causa from the University of London and a Doctor of Law honoris causa from Rhodes University.
Helen is internationally recognised as an award-winning global health practitioner who has dedicated her professional career to improving public health in Africa, with a focus on vaccine preventable diseases, HIV and sexual and reproductive health. Helen has served on and chaired many national and global scientific committees and boards. She is the Board chair of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority and chairs the WHO’s African Regional Technical Advisory Group on Immunization. She is a member of the WHO African Regional Emergency Preparedness and Response Technical Advisory Group. Helen is recognised as a leader in global health security and has served on and chaired a number of WHO International Health Regulation (IHR) Emergency Committees. She chairs the WHO’s IHR Emergency Committee on Polio and co-chairs the SAGE working group on Ebola Vaccines. Helen is a member of WHO’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards and a steering committee member of the Coalition for Clinical Research for Pandemics in LMICs. Helen is a member of the South African National Advisory Group on Immunisation and co-chairs the Mpox Working group. Helen co-chairs South Africa’s Mpox Incident Management Team overseeing SA’s mpox response. She was a member of the WHO IHR Committee on Mpox responsible for issuing standing recommendations. Helen has recently been appointed as co-chair of the newly established WHO Poxvirus Collaborating Centre under the recently released prioritized pathogen family report by the WHO R&D Blueprint. Helen chairs the MedAccess Board, a global not-for-profit organisation that uses innovative funding mechanisms to support access to neglected therapeutics and diagnostics required in Low Middle-Income Countries.
Helen has won many international and national awards for her contribution to global health and to science, including being made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in 2001 by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2016 she was awarded the South African National Order of the Baobab for her contribution to medicine and to medical research. In 2022 Helen was made an Officer of the French National Order of Merit by President Macron for her contribution to global health and to the COVID-19 response, and also received the Platinum South African National Batho Pele Award for excellence in contribution to the South African COVID-19 response. In 2022 she was named a ‘standout voice’ in African public health by Harvard Public Health. In May 2025 Helen received the prestigious Dr Lee Jong-wook Memorial Prize for Public Health from the World Health Organization, one of the highest global honours in the field of public health. This award recognises her exceptional contributions to global health, particularly in vaccine research, outbreak response, and health equity. In addition to this accolade, Helen has recently been elected as a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), joining a distinguished network of scholars committed to advancing science and innovation across the African continent.