Professor Moses. John Chimbari is the Great Zimbabwe University Pro-Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, Research and Innovation. He holds a PhD from University of Copenhagen, Denmark and is a Full Professor with 20 years’ experience in senior university leadership having served as Deputy Director and Director, Dean and possessing 30 years of conducting transdisciplinary research. Before joining Great Zimbabwe University, Professor Chimbari was a Public Health Research Professor in the School of Nursing and Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). Prior to that, Prof Chimbari was Deputy Director of the Botswana Okavango Research Institute, (2008-2012); Director of Research and Innovation, National University of Science and Technology (2006-2008) and Director of University Lake Kariba Research Station, University of Zimbabwe (2000-2006). Prof Chimbari has published over 160 articles in peer-reviewed journals on diverse public health aspects. He has graduated 26 PhD and 11 Masters Students. He has been featured as a UKZN Top 30 Researcher for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Prof Chimbari has a passion for capacity building and has for decades championed short courses targeting postgraduate students and early career academics. The courses include mentorship, proposal development, manuscript writing, thesis writing, and grant writing. Prof Chimbari has extensive experience in developing and managing large projects. In the past two decades he led projects funded by the International Development Research Centre – Canada (IDRC; 2002-2004; IDRC; 2010- 2014), World Health Organization (WHO/IDRC; 2013-2017), and National Institute of Health Research TIBA (NIHR – UK; 2018 – current), British Academy (2018, 2020), UK Research Innovation-UKRI (2020) and EU (current).
He is the President of Ecohealth International, chair of Africa Ecohealth Regional Chapter, co-Deputy Director of Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA), Member of NIHR Global Health Community Engagement and Involvement Advisory Network and Member of the Planetary Health Alliance Task Team on Medical Students planetary health competencies. He also served on the advisory committee of Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA funded by the UK Department for International Development, Economic and Social Research Council, and the Natural Environment Research Council – 2011 to 2015).
