"About maria namaganda"
I am a Bioinformatics and Health Data Scientist focused on turning real-world health data into human-centred, evidence-based decisions. My work sits at the intersection of global health and routine program data, with a primary focus on African health systems.
I am currently completing a PhD in Bioinformatics and Data Science at Makerere University (MakDARTA), where I develop and apply machine-learning models to national HIV program data from Uganda to predict virological failure and long-term treatment outcomes, supporting more timely and equitable patient care. The analytic frameworks I use are designed to be transferable to other complex health settings. My long-term goal is to harness data and AI to strengthen public health systems through people-centred interventions and policy-relevant analytics.
I am a WHO/TDR Clinical Research Leadership Fellow with ISARIC at the University of Oxford, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams working on big data, clinical research data and pandemic preparedness. I am also a Visiting Graduate Scholar at the University of California, San Francisco’s Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS-UCSF), where I was appointed an inaugural Pandemic Preparedness Scholar.
Alongside my research, I support capacity building in global health, data literacy and research reproducibility, and I have presented my work at regional and international fora. I have been invited to speak and serve as a panelist at platforms including the African Research Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases and the British Computing Society’s British Early Career Webinar, among others.
As a digital creative and PhD fellow, I am enthusiastic about wellness, mentorship and human-centred storytelling. My social media platforms bridge research, creativity, lifestyle and wellness. Through relatable visuals and human-centred narratives, I’ve built a growing organic community of over 24,000 followers—youth and professionals in Uganda and across the diaspora who aspire to live with purpose, clarity and confidence.
Across these roles, I am deeply committed to Africa-led science, ethical data ecosystems and human-centred approaches to AI in health. I also care about how people actually live and thrive while they do this work—which is why I founded CareerBiome, a mentorship and science communication platform that helps early-career professionals, especially young women, align personal wellbeing with ambitious scientific and global health careers.