Mercury Shitindo
Mercury Shitindo is an internationally recognized bioethicist and research leader with over two decades of experience shaping ethical governance, policy, and capacity building across Africa. She is the Chair and Executive Director of the Africa Bioethics Network (ABN), which connects bioethics professionals across more than 40 African countries, and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the African Journal of Bioethics.
She has served as a consultant for the WHO Headquarters Ethics Review Committee Secretariat and as an ethics expert for the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Ethics Appraisal Scheme, contributing to global governance of research ethics. Mercury is Principal Investigator on several multi-country initiatives, including the Wellcome Trust SHARE study on environmentally sustainable health research, the WHO-funded Climate Ethics in Health Research project, and the ORCID Global Participation Fund project on strengthening research integrity. She also co-leads the British Academy–funded Global Health Justice Writing Workshop.
Her research interests include the environmental sustainability of AI-enabled health research, equitable access to healthcare and research in underserved regions, the ethical governance of reproductive technologies, and the integration of indigenous and African philosophical frameworks (such as Ubuntu) into global bioethics.
Mercury is an experienced trainer, curriculum developer, and mentor, having led the development of continental programs such as the Research Ethics Committee Administrators (RECA) course, ABN’s BEACON Mentorship Program, and the Contemporary Applied Bioethics Training. She also serves as a Crossref Ambassador and is an active member of several global platforms, including GHP (formerly THET), GA4GH, and PHA4GE.
She is passionate about advancing equity, justice, and sustainability in research partnerships and amplifying African perspectives in global bioethics debates.