Dr Byron Bitanihirwe, is a Programme Manager at Science for Africa Foundation (SFA Foundation) on the Being Programme-an international mental health initiative envisioning a world where young people feel well and thrive. He also currently serves as a Visting Lecturer within the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Nairobi. Prior to joining SFA Foundation, Byron was a lecturer in Global Health within the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute at the University of Manchester where he structured and led on collaborative (funded) projects with Harvard Medical School and the University of Toronto with a focus on translational psychiatry research that included: 1) Assessing the role of antenatal corticosteroids on neurodevelopmental outcomes and 2) Understanding the role of the choroid plexus in relation to the evolution of psychopathology. During this time, he also published work in the domain of trauma-informed pedagogy in higher education. He has served as Principal Consultant for Bank Lombard Odier and a Research Portfolio Analyst with MQ: Transforming Mental Health, a UK mental health research charity. His other experience includes an Internship with the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse of the World Health Organization in Geneva and a Roche Postdoctoral Fellowship. Some of his ongoing work involves understanding how anomalies in metabolic programming influence psychopathology and addressing gambling-related harm among youth on the African continent. He holds a PhD in neurobiology from ETH Zürich.
