Pontiano Kaleebu is Director of the MRC/LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, and the Uganda Virus Research Institute. He has made major contributions to HIV vaccine development and clinical trials. He established a comprehensive vaccine centre at UVRI, leading phase I clinical trials for experimental HIV, Ebola and Rift Valley Fever vaccine. He is now leading the first-ever European funded HIV vaccine efficacy trial with clinical sites in Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa.|Professor Kaleebu is a role model for African scientists directing successful multi-disciplinary research centres, winning competitive international funding and training the next generation of African scientists and clinical investigators.