Dr. Paul Divis

Dr. Paul Divis graduated with a B. Biomedical Science (Hons) degree from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He further pursued an MSc in Molecular Parasitology from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), which he studied the prevalence on non-human primate malaria parasites in wild macaques of Sarawak using molecular tools. After joining as a lecturer in UNIMAS in 2009, he received a scholarship from the Ministry of Education to pursue his study at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the United Kingdom and obtained his PhD in Parasitology. During this course, he studied the population genetic structure of Plasmodium knowlesi infections in humans and macaques across Malaysia using newly developed multi-locus microsatellite markers as well as the genomic architecture of different P. knowlesi subpopulations.

Dr. Divis is also a research fellow of the Malaria Research Centre, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. His research interests are mainly focusing on zoonotic malaria, with key elements of molecular epidemiology, molecular detection, parasite evolution, population genetics and pathogen genomics. Currently, he is interested in exploring the hotspots of zoonotic malaria infections that are massively occurring in Sarawak. Dr Divis’ work has been presented in many international conferences in the UK, USA, Europe, Southeast Asia and Australia, and he is also a reviewer for international peer-reviewed journals.