KI-Dissertation in Uganda

Proscovia (Prossy) Naluyima Sekiziyivu, Department of Medicine, Huddinge defended her PhD thesis on December 8, 2016.

This dissertation was extraordinary in the sense that it took place in Kampala, Uganda, with the examination board flown in from Sweden.

Professor Johan Sandberg, Center for Infectious Medicine (CIM), has been Proscovias main supervisor. Permission was given by the Dean of Research Education to arrange the dissertation in Uganda with the condition that it was broadcast over the internet to the CIM seminar room – to make sure the dissertation was accessible to the public in Sweden.

Why did you choose to arrange the dissertation in Uganda?

– There were several reasons for this. Prossy did most of the thesis work in Kampala, and we wanted to have the possibility for her colleagues and family to attend. We also had a workshop the day before the defense with talks by members of the examination board and the opponent. We wanted to do this as an added value for the local scientific community at Mulago hospital, says Johan Sandberg.

The defense went very well and the whole event ran as planned. Johan Sandberg is looking into the possibility to have another PhD student from Uganda within the framework of his research collaboration with Makerere University Walter Reed Project (MUWRP) and the US Military HIV Research Program (MHRP).