About Kavindhran Velen

Kavindhran (Kavi) Velen joined FIND in July 2021 and currently works across the TB and Access programmes as a Senior Scientist. He supports evidence generation for informing TB policy, but also developing accelerated strategies for scaling up diagnostic recommendations in high-burden countries.

Kavi has 15 years of experience in public health and epidemiological research within the private, government and NGO space in various technical, research and management roles. He is a trained microbiologist and epidemiologist with a specific research interest in optimizing TB active case finding strategies, particularly in low-and middle-income settings. His work has informed policy guidance, directly with the World Health Organization, the South African TB Think Tank and the Australian Tuberculosis Center for Research Excellence (TB-CRE).

He completed a post-doc with the University of Sydney and holds a PhD (University of Witwatersrand), a MPH (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) (University of Pretoria), a BSc (Hons) Medical Microbiology and a BSc (Biological Science) from the University of KwaZulu/Natal. He is also a graduate of the South African Field Epidemiology Laboratory Training Program (SAELTP) modelled and funded through the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Epidemic Intelligence Services (EIS) Program.