Dr. Lawrence Lubyayi

I was born in Masaka district, central Uganda. I had my primary and O-level education in Masaka, completing A-level secondary education in Kisubi-Wakiso on the outskirts of the capital-city Kampala. I then earned a merit government scholarship to study for a bachelor’s degree in Statistics from Makerere University Kampala – Uganda’s oldest and prime university.

Fresh from my first degree, I worked as a data management officer in the Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP), one of the premier HIV/AIDS research centres in Sub-Saharan Africa. I worked there for 3.5 years until I won a prestigious award from the Belgian Flemish government for an MSc degree in Biostatistics from the University of Hasselt, Belgium. This two-year intensive program followed a rigorous graduate curriculum with a strong grounding in statistical theory coupled with extensive practical application to health research and current epidemiological challenges. I graduated in 2014 and my thesis focused on evolution of CD4 cell counts over time for HIV/AIDS patients on Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Mildmay Uganda.

Back home, after my MSc degree, I worked as a consultant Biostatistician at Mildmay Uganda where I was responsible for technical advice on study designs, sample size determination and data analysis plans, in addition to capacity building of staff in statistical software, data management and analysis. I was also a part-time lecturer of Biostatistics in the Master of Public Health Leadership (MPHL) program of the Uganda Christian University (UCU) where I imparted statistics skills to nonstatisticians. I then worked with Management Sciences for Health, where my responsibilities included analysis of data which came through the National Health Information Systems; to mainly inform on the performance of the supply chain system of medicines and health supplies throughout the country. I also carried out research studies and evaluations to inform policy decision making.

I then worked as a Statistician with the Medical Research Council / Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (MRC/UVRI & LSHTM) Unit. My focus was on projects within the Immunomodulation and Vaccines Programme (IVac), which aimed to investigate the epidemiological and immunological interactions between chronic, immune-modulating infections and infectious and non-communicable disease outcomes. The wealth of available data collected over time and supportive scientists with a common desire to contribute to better health of the world through research motivated me to pursue PhD studies, to further deepen my understanding and application of cutting-edge statistical methodology to address basic science questions using epidemiological data. That was the conception of my PhD topic on statistical modelling approaches for longitudinal multiple outcome data from immuno-epidemiological studies in Entebbe, Uganda.

My PhD journey was fascinating thanks to the SSACAB scholarship arrangement. First, I had three distinguished supervisors, Prof. Jonathan Levin (Wits), Prof. Emily Webb (LSHTM) and Prof. Alison Elliott (MRC/UVRI & LSHTM). This meant that I had an opportunity to spend time at Wits, at LSHTM and in Entebbe (Uganda), exposing me to a wealth of experience from two academic institutions and practical grounding in research execution with real-life studies in Uganda. At Wits, I participated in tutoring Masters students in biostatistics topics, consultations in the School of Medicine and participated in various seminars either as a reviewer or presenter. The SSACAB annual conferences were also an important platform where I had a chance to share the progress of my PhD work and received reviews and insights from experts in biostatistics. I achieved three first author publications out of my PhD work, in high impact journals.

On completion of my PhD in 2021, I applied for and was awarded a PhD graduate level position in Novartis Pharmaceutical Company UK. The role involved 15 months of rotation in various analytics functions across different disease areas and phases of drug development, at the end of which I was offered a Principal Biostatistician position in which I serve to date.

All in all, I am very grateful for the SSACAB scholarship because it was very flexible and aligned with my career desires and it provided a platform for me to advance my research interests in the analysis of longitudinal immuno-epidemiological data.