Sema Sgaier

Sema K. Sgaier is a scientist, global health expert, and documentary photographer. Sgaier’s expertise includes molecular biology, genetics, genomics, neuroscience, epidemiology, disease surveillance, monitoring & evaluation of programs and policy development.
Sema is an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an Affiliate Assistant Professor, Global Health at the University of Washington.
Research.
Sgaier was the first to fine tune and apply the technique of Genetic Inducible Fate Mapping (GIFM) to understand how the complex 3D cerebellum develops from early-undifferentiated neuronal cells of the anterior hindbrain. With Tim Yu and colleagues, she discovered that mutations in the gene WDR62 causes microcephaly.
At the Center for Global Health Research, Sgaier designed and developed the Sample Registration Health Check-Up Survey to study the underlying risk factors of various diseases in India. She has published on the epidemiology of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.
From 2008, Sema was a Program Officer with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She led a portfolio on voluntary medical male circumcision for HIV prevention across eastern and southern Africa. As part of BMGF’s India Country Office, Sema led the scale-up of the foundation’s HIV prevention program (Avahan) in several states, managed its transition to the government of India, and developed data platforms for decision-making. She worked closely with the Indian National AIDS Control Program to assist in the design of their program and strengthen their analytic efforts.
Early life.
Sgaier was born in 1975 in Tripoli, Libya to a Libyan father and Turkish mother. Sgaier studied Molecular Biology and Genetics at Bogazici University (Istanbul, Turkey) where she graduated with her Bachelor of Science in 2005, ranking first of her class. Sgaier later obtained her Masters in Art in Neuroscience from Brown University in 1999 and Masters in Science and Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Cellular and Molecular Biology (Developmental Genetics) in 2005 from New York University. She conducted her Postdoctoral training in Human Genomics in the Lab of Dr. Christopher A. Walsh at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School.
Sema is the recipient of New York University, Brown University fellowships and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center fellowships.
Sgaier studied Documentary Photography at the International Center of Photography.