Amina Abubakar

Amina Abubakar is a Research Scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Wellcome Trust Research Programme where she co-leads the Neuroscience Research Group. She is also an Associate Professor of Psychology and Public Health at Pwani University, Kenya and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Human Development, Aga Khan University. She is an honorary fellow at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK.

Her main research interests are in the study of developmental delays and impairments among children exposed to various health problems such as HIV, malnutrition, epilepsy, Sickle Cell Disease and malaria. A focus in her work is the development of culturally appropriate strategies for identifying, monitoring and rehabilitating at-risk children. Dr. Abubakar has been instrumental in developing various culturally appropriate measures of child development that have been used in many African countries.  She has extensive work experience in the field of child and adolescent health research.  In 2016, she was awarded the Royal Society Pfizer Award in recognition of her pioneering psychological research in East Africa, and for the impact her work has had in the field of neurodevelopmental assessment.