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Professor Tulio de Oliveira joins a select global group recognised for shaping bioinformatics and computational biology – and for advancing Africa’s contribution to the field.

Professor Tulio de Oliveira has become only the second Africa-based scientist to be elected a Fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology, one of the highest honours in global bioinformatics and computational biology.

For Prof de Oliveira, the recognition reflects not only his own career, but the strength of science being built in Africa by African researchers.

“I am very honoured to have been selected as the second-ever African-based fellow of the ISCB,” he said. “Being a fellow of the ISCB is the highest honour awarded by the International Society for Computational Biology and is widely recognised as the pinnacle career distinction in the global bioinformatics and computational biology community.”

The ISCB highlighted his leadership in genomic surveillance, including work that helped establish South Africa as a global leader in tracking viral evolution during the COVID-19 pandemic and the identification and tracking of the Omicron variant. It also recognised his role in building an Africa-based research programme driven predominantly by African scientists and in training a new generation of bioinformaticians.

Prof de Oliveira joins 19 other scientists elected to the 2026 cohort. He credited the achievement to the teams behind the science, including Eduan Wilkinson, Richard Lessells and Houriiyah Tegally, as well as collaborators across Africa, South Africa, Brazil and internationally

The fellowship places him among a select group of scientists whose work has helped shape a field increasingly central to understanding and responding to disease.

News date: 2026-09-03

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