Christopher Whitty is Professor of International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Chief Scientific Advisor and Director Research and Evidence at the UK DFID. He has an international reputation for research on malaria and other important diseases in the tropics. One of Professor Whitty’s major achievements has been bringing together researchers from many disciplines to tackle important questions such as why febrile illness is generally managed so badly in poorly resourced countries. He has contributed substantially to research capacity strengthening in Africa through his support of individual scientists and centres.