Jef Vanhamel

Experience

• 

  KU Leuven

  Jul 2016 - Aug 2016

  Research Trainee

  Dept of Pharmaceutical & Pharmacological Sciences - Unit Molecular Virology & Gene TherapyResearch project: studying the molecular virology of HIV-1 latency

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  KU Leuven

  Feb 2017 - Jun 2018

  Medical Intern

  Internal Medicine - Heilig-Hart Hospital, Mol (Belgium)Paediatrics - Kisubi Hospital, Kisubi (Uganda)Obstetrics & Gynaecology - Kisubi Hospital, Kisubi (Uganda)Surgery - Heilig-Hart Hospital, Lier (Belgium)Psychiatry - Sint-Vincentius Hospital, Antwerp (Belgium)Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation - University Hospitals Leuven, Pellenberg (Belgium)Travel Medicine, Tropical Medicine and HIV/STIs - Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp (Belgium)

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  Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp

  Mar 2019 - now

  • Strengthening the research capacity of the HIV and Sexual Health Unit in epidemiological and public health research focused on HIV and STIs, with particular focus on service delivery organisation and innovation in high-resource and low-resource settings. • Course leader of the postgraduate short course on “Research Approaches in International Health”,which led 28 participants from 20 countries to successfully complete the course.• Delivering advanced teaching modules on public health research methods, the epidemiology of HIVand STIs, and evidence synthesis to a diverse group of international students across variouspostgraduate courses (i.e. master-level and beyond).• Lead investigator on a research project using Demographic and Health Survey data to estimate theeffect of scaling-up medical male circumcision on STI prevalence in Eastern and Southern Africa.• Supervising MPH thesis students.Sexual & Reproductive Health Research Group - Department of Public Health Show less • Lead investigator of a work package within a large implementation science project dedicated tounderstanding and addressing health system barriers of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) deliveryin Belgium. Key outputs include several first-author publications in high-impact peer-reviewed journals(e.g. Journal of the International AIDS Society), contributions to policy formulation (e.g. guidelines),presentations at outstanding international conferences, and a doctoral dissertation.• Coordinating investigator of a mixed-methods study aimed at describing and understanding multi-leveltransmission contexts of the 2022 mpox (formerly Monkeypox) epidemic in Belgium; results werepresented at World Health Organization (WHO) and published in BMJ STI.• Lead investigator and project manager on an ECDC-commissioned consultancy to develop amonitoring framework for HIV PrEP programmes in Europe; results were published as a tool on theECDC website, in Eurosurveillance and as a separate technical report.• Lead investigator in a community-based ethnographic research project exploring the impact ofCOVID-19 on ethnic and racialised minority communities in Antwerp city; results were translated intopolicy recommendations to the City council and were published in the International Journal for Equity inHealth.• Providing technical and methodological assistance on a large systematic review on HIV and migrationin the EU as part of a contracted consultancy commissioned by UNAIDS; results were published as atechnical report and in The Lancet HIV.• Responsible for delivering advanced teaching modules on public health research methods, theepidemiology of HIV and STIs, and evidence synthesis in various postgraduate courses (i.e. master-level and beyond).• Successfully supervising five MPH thesis students to completion.Sexual & Reproductive Health Research Group - Department of Public Health Show less

  • Research Fellow

    Jan 2024 - now

  • Research Assistant

    Aug 2019 - Dec 2023

  • Research Intern

    Mar 2019 - Jul 2019