Our People
Pakistan
Dr. Salman Kirmani is a distinguished Medical Geneticist and Pediatric Endocrinologist with over two decades of clinical, academic, and research experience. He currently serves as the Director of the Centre of Excellence in Women & Child Health at Aga Khan University (AKU), overseeing regional initiatives in Pakistan and East Africa.He also holds the Parveen Kanji Irshad-ud-din Endowed Chair in the Division of Women and Child Health and is a Professor of Paediatrics & Medicine at AKU Medical College. Dr. Kirmani completed his MBBS from Dow Medical College and pursued his residency and fellowships at the Mayo Clinic, USA, where he obtained board certifications from the American Boards of Pediatrics, Medical Genetics, and Pediatric Endocrinology. His scholarly interests focus on genomics in underrepresented populations, precision therapies for Mendelian disorders, hereditary endocrine/bone diseases, and genomics education in low-resource settings.
At AKU, Dr. Kirmani has played a pivotal role in advancing pediatric neurology, genetic testing, and rare disease research networks in Pakistan. He established and introduced the country’s first genetic counselling program and a gene therapy program, making them a cutting-edge healthcare solution with accessibility. An active researcher and educator, Dr. Kirmani has authored nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. He has presented his work at international platforms, including the Undiagnosed Disease Network International (UDNI), where he serves on the board. His contributions have been recognized with several awards, including the Outstanding Teacher Award and the Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Beyond academia, Dr. Kirmani is deeply involved in public health and policymaking. His advocacy extends to supporting parent groups for rare diseases, and policy development in pediatric genetics. Dr Kirmani’s work continues to shape the future of Genomic medicine and a robust health care system in Pakistan and beyond. View Profile
Dr. Sajid Bashir Soofi is an endowed Professor of Pediatrics & Child Health and Director, Center of Excellence in Women & Child Health, whose work integrates clinical practice, implementation research, and policy translation to advance maternal, neonatal, child, and adolescent health, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. His primary focus areas include nutrition, immunization, and broader public health priorities in women and children.
He has led high-impact clinical trials, large-scale nutrition intervention studies, and national and international nutrition surveys and program evaluations. His research has generated robust contextual evidence that has directly informed maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (MNCAH) policies and programs. Notably, his stunting-prevention trials in Pakistan produced critical evidence that shaped national nutrition policy and supported the development of a multi-sectoral model integrating specialized nutritious foods, supplementation, and conditional cash transfers through the national social safety net.
Dr. Soofi has secured more than 70 competitive research grants, established sustained collaborations with global funders and academic partners, and authored over 280 peer-reviewed manuscripts, book chapters, and commentaries in leading international journals. His work has significantly influenced practice and policy in Pakistan and other LMICs.
His contributions are recognized through multiple national and international honors, including the Academic Pediatric Association’s International Health Research Award (2010), BMJ South Asia Research Award of the Year (2017), Aga Khan University Outstanding Research Faculty Awards (2017, 2021), the CDC’s Larry J. Anderson / Charles C. Shepard Science Award for Outstanding Public Health Science (2019), and the Aga Khan University Award for Excellence in Research (2023). He has been named among the World’s Top 2% Most-Cited Scientists for 2024 and recognized by Stanford University, USA, as a global researcher with outstanding career-wide impact. View Profile
Mr Imtiaz Hussain, joined Aga Khan University as Research Officer in 2002 and at present presently holds the position of Director Research Operations at Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health Aga Khan University. He has more than 20 years’ experience of implementing different community based research projects and surveys at National and International scale under the umbrella of division of Women and Child Health Aga Khan University. During his 20 years of association in the field of public health research, his focus is to improve Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition and Essential Immunization in Pakistan and globally, to foster a research culture with highest scientific and ethical standards and to promote an environment conducive for its researchers to engage in scientific inquiry. He worked closely with the national stakeholders, private partners, ministries and the sponsor agencies to develop research ideas and innovations and implementing the evidence in programmatic settings to influence policy makers in the country. His research work enabled him to undertake several high impact research studies and key surveys such as the National Nutrition Survey in Afghanistan, Maldives, Eritrea and Pakistan and Polio Seroprevalence surveys in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
During his association with The Aga Khan University, Mr. Hussain contributed as a lead in more than 40 national, international and provincial scale research projects, submitted more than 50 technical reports/manuscripts, coordinated with more than 20 institutions/organizations [International Universities, UN agencies, INGOs such as The Harvard school of Public Health, World Bank, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Centre of Disease Control (CDC), Swiss Red Cross, World Health Organization]. He experiences the translation of his theoretical knowledge and experience to a broader scope and was awarded with Young Professional researcher award in Micronutrient forum held in Beijing in 2008. He aims to rigorously contribute in the research being done in Pakistan to achieve the MDGs and SDGs. View profile
