Geoffrey Siwo, a scientist at IBM Research - Africa demonstrates to IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginni Rometty how the newly opened lab in Johannesburg, South Africa is using cognitive, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things to address challenges in healthcare, urban ecosystems and to make new discoveries in the universe. (Credit: IBM)

This is the 3rd annual list of Quartz Africa Innovators. The latest list includes more than 30 Africans from 18 different countries.
 
Siwo told Quartz Africa editors that, “Understanding cancer will also equip us with an understanding of many areas of biology, and therefore ways of developing diagnostics and treatments for diseases beyond cancer.”
 
He joined IBM’s Research lab in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2015. Siwo is currently leading the data driven healthcare research at the lab which in addition to cancer, is also focused on tracking the spread of tuberculosis and anti-malarial drug resistance. He will be presenting some of his latest research at the Turing Talks in Scotland on 13 June.
 
Siwo earned a PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Notre Dame in 2014 for developing computational models for understanding malaria drug resistance. He performed his post-doctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania (Perelman School of Medicine) and Dartmouth College (Geisel School of Medicine).
 
Follow him @gsiwo