Thumbi Mwangi is a Kenyan veterinarian with PhD training in infectious disease epidemiology using applied epidemiological modelling and data science to improve the speed and quality of policy decision making in human and animal health.

His current research includes implementation research for the elimination of dog-mediated human rabies, syndromic surveillance for early detection of zoonotic spillover, transmission and control of zoonoses, livestock interventions for improvement of human nutritional status, and more recently transmission dynamics and control of SARS-CoV2 in Kenya.

He holds the positions of Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nairobi Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases, Associate Professor at the Washington State University Paul G Allen School for Global Animal Health, and the Chancellor’s Fellow in Global Health at the University of Edinburgh. He is an Affiliate Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, and the South African Center for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis.

Nationally, he serves as the Chair of the National Technical Committee on Modelling advising the Kenya government on COVID-19 responses, member of the National Rabies Elimination Coordination Committee charged with oversight of the implementation of the rabies elimination strategy for Kenya, and member of Kenya’s Zoonotic Technical Working Group. Internationally, he is a member of the Africa CDC COVID-19 modelling group, member of the Technical Review Committee of the African Union Africa Risk Capacity - epidemics and outbreaks program, Chair of the United Against Rabies Working Group on effective use of vaccines, medicines, tools, and technologies. He has served as a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) rabies modelling consortium, and a member of WHO Rabies Expert Group that reviewed and updated the current WHO rabies guidelines.

His research has been funded by the Wellcome Trust, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, World Health Organization, UK Global Challenges Research Fund, Kenya National Research Fund, Paul G Allen Family Foundation, UK Medical Research Council, Scottish Funding Council, USAID, Sanofi Pasteur and the German Research Foundation.