Adeeba Kamarulzaman graduated from Monash University and trained in internal medicine and infectious diseases at the Monash Medical Centre and Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. She was Dean of Medicine at University of Malaya from 2011-2020 and is presently an Adjunct Associate Professor at Yale University, USA. She established the Centre of Excellence for Research on AIDS (CERiA) that conducts multi-disciplinary research in HIV ranging from clinical studies to public health and policy research. Adeeba Kamarulzaman is currently Chairman of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation and is the first Asian President of the International AIDS Society. She is a member of the UNAIDS Advisory Group and was a two term Co-Chair of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) on HIV for the World Health Organisation. Additionally she has played a critical role in the establishment and operations of TREAT Asia, a regional HIV research network funded by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). She has played an active role in the national COVID-19 response, first as Chair to the UMMC Task Force and member of the Selangor COVID-19 Task Force. More recently she was invited to be a member of Malaysia’s National Recovery Council. Her achievements have been recognised through several national and international awards including the Tun Mahathir Science and Merdeka Awards for her role as a member of the University of Malaya’s Nipah Investigative Team. She is also the first recipient of the Advance Australia Global Award in the category of Alumni in 2012, and, in 2015 was honoured with a Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) from her alma mater, Monash University.