Glenda Gray, MBBCH, FCPaed (SA), DSc (honoris causa) and an NRF A rated scientist is President of the Medical Research Council. She is a Professor of Paediatrics in the Faculty of Health Sciences, at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is also a Professor in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute. She was the Executive Director of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit before joining the MRC to lead their Office of AIDS Research. She is the Co-PI of the NIH funded HIV Vaccine Trials Network and the Director of HVTN International Programs. In 2002, she was awarded the Nelson Mandela Health and Human Rights Award for pioneering work done in the field of Mother-to- Child Transmission of HIV-1. She is a member of the Academy of Science in South Africa, and chairs their standing committee on health. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine, of the National Academies and serves on their Global Health Board. Gray has also been awarded the IAPAC “Hero of Medicine” award for work done in the field of HIV treatment in children and adults. In 2009, James McIntyre and Gray received the N’Galy-Mann lectureship in recognition of their HIV research contribution in South Africa. In June 2012 she received a DSc honoris causa from the Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.