JIAS Impact Awards 2025

Marlène Bras has more than 12 years of experience in public health, research and management in the HIV field. She was appointed as Director, HIV Programmes and Advocacy in September 2022 and is also the Executive Editor of the Journal of the International AIDS Society (JIAS). A basic scientist by training, Marlène has worked across HIV disciplines from basic and clinical sciences to behavioural, epidemiology and implementation sciences.

Marlène joined the IAS in 2014 where she assumed roles of increasing responsibilities. Under her leadership, JIAS tripled its submission rate and established itself as the second-highest ranked of all HIV-specific journals since 2017. Marlène has been in a senior leadership position at the IAS since 2019 and has overseen the implementation science portfolio of the HIV Programmes and Advocacy department since 2021. She is committed to the current focus areas that define the HIV Programmes and Advocacy department portfolio: HIV vaccine and cure research; optimizing treatment and care for infants, children and adolescents in resource-limited settings; stigma-free and person-centred care; and expanding access to HIV prevention, treatment and care services.

Marlène has created and facilitated more than 20 workshops on scientific writing and ethics in publishing in professional fora both in-country (Australia, Canada, France, Ghana, Mexico, the Netherlands, Rwanda and South Africa) and virtually.

She was trained at the Pasteur Institute (France) and holds a PhD in cellular biology from the Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris VI, France).

Kenneth Mayer is Medical Research Director and Co-Chair of The Fenway Institute. He is also a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; a Professor, Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard School of Public Health; Director of HIV Prevention Research and Attending Physician at Beth Israel Lahey Health; and Adjunct Professor of Medicine and Community Health at Brown University.

His areas of research include international HIV/AIDS, Gay and Bisexual Men’s Health, HIV/AIDS Prevention, Microbicides, PrEP, PEP, Vaccines, Secondary Prevention, HIV/AIDS Treatment, and Antibiotic Use and Molecular Epidemiology of Antibiotic Resistance.