Portrait of a scientist in the International Network: Mamadou Aliou Barry – a lookout against epidemics in Senegal

Each month for the coming semester, the International Affairs Department will present the portrait of a scientist in the Institut Pasteur International Network. This monthly snapshot will offer a glimpse of the career, commitment and challenges – together with some choice anecdotes – of those whose efforts ensure that Pasteurian research reaches every continent worldwide.

The first portrait is of Mamadou Aliou Barry, a physician and epidemiologist who trained in France, Senegal and Laos. Since January 2015, he coordinates the syndromic sentinel surveillance network at the Institut Pasteur de Dakar. This network enables to detect epidemics of febrile illnesses almost in real time thanks to an early warning system.

After high school, his classmates all wanted to do math or exact sciences but his mother wanted him to become a physician. Mamadou Barry hesitates and decides to leave it to chance: "We drew lots, my mom won twice, me once", he recalls, smiling. "Medicine attracted me especially because in Africa as there is so much to do to improve health". This is particularly the case in Guinea, his native country, as in Senegal where he did most of his studies - his father is Guinean, his mother Senegalese.

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