Lukman Lawal

Lukman joined the Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit in November 2024 as a trainee research fellow. His research in the Mexico City Prospective Study explores the metabolomic mediators of adiposity on infectious disease mortality in Mexicans under the supervision of Dr. Louisa Gnatiuc and Dr. Eirini Trichia.

Lukman is the co-founder of Medics Connect Research Institute in Ilorin, Nigeria, leading efforts to build population health research capacity among young medical doctors. In 2021, he interned with the West African Institute of Public Health and led a team to investigate the determinants of low COVID-19 vaccine coverage in Africa, proposing innovative, context-specific interventions. The following year, as a research clinician at the Centre for Malaria and Other Tropical Disease Care in Ilorin, he led multidisciplinary teams in a clinical trial comparing widely used antimalarial drugs with new triple artemisinin combination therapies, a Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit led project in Africa.

Lukman earned his medical degree (MBBS) from the University of Ilorin in 2019 and an MSc in Global Health Science and Epidemiology from the University of Oxford in 2024. His dissertation examined the association between adiposity markers and infectious disease mortality among Mexicans. He is passionate about tackling population health challenges, especially in resource-poor settings, through a mix of innovation, research, and advocacy. He has been recognised with a merit-based membership in the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and a Clinton Global Initiative fellowship (an initiative of the former US President for young global leaders).