Sophia Osawe is a Senior Manager at the International Research Center of Excellence (IRCE) of the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria, and the Research Hub manager for INFORM Africa research hub.  Sophia has over 15 years of experience in diagnostics, research, implementation science projects, and quality management systems. Sophia obtained her BSc (Hons) in Microbiology from the University of Jos, a postgraduate training program in Medical Laboratory Science with a specialization in Virology, a Master’s in Public Health, a Master’s in Business Administration and a last year PhD candidate of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Jos. She is a registered member of the Nigerian Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria. She has coordinated a number of observational studies (two large cohort studies) and clinical trials. Sophia was a study manager for the H3A-funded projects BEAMING (PI: Prof Alash’le Abimiku). She additionally provides laboratory technical leadership for projects at IRCE including the SECURE Nigeria where she also led two SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence surveys in selected HIV-positive populations. She recently received funding from Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (PHA4GE https://pha4ge.org/) as the PI, to explore COVID-19 hesitancy in densely populated areas of Jos, Plateau state.  

Sophia has co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts and presented several abstracts at local and international conferences. Sophia has led IHVN’s first medical laboratory (2017) as well as a total of 9 medical laboratories in Malawi (2020-2023) to achieve and maintain international accreditation in accordance with ISO 15189.