Nelson Sewankambo

In the early 1980s, Sewankambo was one of the earliest physicians in Uganda to recognize the new disease that caused patients to lose weight and "slim" down to abnormal cachectic sizes. The new disease, at first called Slim Disease, became known as HIV/AIDS. He has been at the forefront of research about the disease, specializing in HIV clinical drug trials. He has extensively published the finding of his research in medical journals and other peer publications. In the late 1990s, he was appointed Dean of Makerere University School of Medicine. He served in that position until 2007 when he was promoted to the position of Principal, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, a position he still occupies. He has been engaged in a number of international boards, one of them is the Board of the Norwegian Global Health and Vaccination Research for 2011 to 2014.

Sewankambo was educated at Namilyango College, an all-boys residential middle and high school (grades: eight to thirteen) located in Mukono District, from 1965 until 1970. In 1971, he entered the Makerere University School of Medicine, where he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, graduating in 1976. He went on to obtain the Master of Medicine degree, specializing in Internal Medicine, also from Makerere in the early 1980s. He later obtained a Master of Science degree in Clinical Epidemiology, from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He was later awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by McMaster University.

He was born at Mulago Hospital, in Kampala, Uganda's capital city, in 1952.