Adetokunbo Lucas

Adetokunbo Oluwole Lucas, OFR MD, DSc, FRCP, FFPH, FRCOG, (1931, Lagos – ) of Ibadan in the Nigeria Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, is a global health leader for Africa and a recipient of both the annual Prince Mahidol Award in 1999 for his support of strategic research on the tropical diseases, such as malaria, schistosomiasis, the filariases, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, African trypanosomiasis, and leprosy, and the 2013 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID). Often known simply as Ade Lucas, he has also served for ten years as the Director of Special Programmes for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases based at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He is currently Adjunct Professor of International Health Department of Global Health and Population of the Harvard School of Public Health. He works largely in his home nation of Nigeria and travels frequently to the United Kingdom and to the Harvard School of Public Health in the United States.

Dr. Lucas studied medicine at Durham University, England, graduating with honours in 1956, followed by postgraduate training in internal medicine and public health.

He was a Professor of internal medicine and public health in University of Ibadan, Nigeria, from 1960 to 1976, after which he directed the Tropical Diseases Research Program of the World Health Organization for ten years, from 1976 to 1986. He later became involved in maternal and child health programs and worked to prevent maternal morbidity and mortality. He was named Professor of International Health at Harvard University in 1990, which position is held in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he remains an adjunct professor in population health in the Department of Global Health and Population. He continues to serve on numerous expert and advisory committees for national and international organisations involved to international health issues. Such institutions include the Rockefeller Foundation, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, the Carter Center, and the Wellcome Trust Scientific Group on Tropical Medicine. He now also chairs the Global Forum for Health Research.

Dr. Lucas is the author of numerous books and articles in refereed public health journals

• A Short Textbook of Preventive Medicine for the Tropics (University Medicine Texts) (1984)
• Short Textbook of Public Health Medicine for the Tropics, 4Ed (2002)
• It Was the Best of Times: From Local to Global Health (2010, Autobiography published in Africa)
• The Man: Adetokunbo Lucas (2011 Biography)

• Amazon: A Short Textbook of Preventive Medicine for the Tropics (University Medicine Texts) (1984)
• Amazon: Short Textbook of Public Health Medicine for the Tropics, 4Ed (2002)
• Nigeria Health Watch article on 2010 publication Archived 22 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
• HSPH Book Presentation
• Webcast: "It was the Best of Times: from Local to Global Health"
• GoogleBooks reference page for this book published in Africa, Bookbuilders, Editions Africa, 2010; ISBN 9788088996, 9789788088998, 616 pages
• Awe, Bolanle; Olurin, Oyinade; Oyediran, A. B. O. O; Lucas, Adetokunbo O (1 January 2011). "The man: Adetokunbo Lucas". BookBuilders. Retrieved 12 November 2016. 

Dr. Lucas is a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and is one of the first foreign associates of the Institute of Medicine. He has received honorary degrees from Emory University, Tulane University, and Ibadan University, and he has Harvard University has bestowed academic honours upon him. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and one of the first foreign associates of the IOM (Institute of Medicine).

He is recipient of the Prince Mahidol Award (1999), based in Thailand (jointly with Harvard Medical School graduate Dr. R. Palmer Beasley of the United States and Dr. Tore Godal of Norway) and of the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) (5 March 2013).