Robert Colebunders

Robert (Bob) Colebunders, MD, PhD, is an emeritus professor of tropical diseases at the Institute of Tropical Medicine and a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Antwerp. They practiced as a general practitioner in Algeria from 1974 to 1975 and later coordinated HIV/AIDS clinical studies in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1985 to 1988. Furthermore, they contributed to controlling Ebola and Marburg outbreaks in Congo and assisted with HIV treatment rollouts in Uganda. In 2014, they received an advanced ERC grant to investigate the causes of nodding syndrome, discovering its link to onchocerciasis-associated epilepsy. Colebunders has authored or co-authored over 750 papers published in peer-reviewed journals.