Jairus Wangusa Byawele

Jairus Wangusa Byawele is a public health specialist from Uganda. He holds a First-Class degree in Public Health from Lira University, where he graduated as the best-performing student in his cohort. He is a Mastercard Foundation Scholar at the University of Oxford studying for an MSc in Global Health Science and Epidemiology. He is based in the Nuffield Department of Population Health and is a member of Green Templeton College.

Before joining Oxford, Jairus worked with international organisations including WaterAid and the Lutheran World Federation, and with local agencies such as Nsamizi on projects supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He led and supported community health interventions in refugee settlements and underserved rural communities, focusing on preventive care, early screening, and health promotion in low-resource settings.

Jairus has experience in epidemiological surveillance, operational research, and health systems programming. His research covers tuberculosis diagnosis, sickle cell screening, and cardiovascular disease epidemiology. At RineCynth Advisory Limited, he contributed to organisational studies on cardiometabolic conditions through protocol development, data analysis, and literature synthesis.

He is particularly committed to addressing the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in sub-Saharan Africa. After completing his MSc, Jairus intends to pursue a doctorate in Population Health Sciences, with a focus on cardiovascular disease epidemiology. His long-term goal is to work with the World Health Organization as a regional expert in NCDs, designing and implementing evidence-based interventions to strengthen equitable and resilient health systems across Africa.