Dr. Farouk Dako is an Associate Professor of Radiology at Penn and the new Director of the Botswana-Upenn Partnership as well as the Founding Director of Penn’s Center for Global and Population Health Research in Radiology. He is a highly respected global health researcher and clinician whose work in medical imaging, artificial intelligence, and health systems innovation has advanced clinical care and health equity in low-resource settings, particularly across sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Dako brings deep leadership experience and a strong track record of cross-sector collaboration to BUP. He currently directs RAD-AID International’s Nigeria program and co-founded a healthcare and education NGO that has served thousands of people in need of care. His multi-institutional programmatic work emphasizes sustainability, local ownership, and effective skills transfer, proving his functional and philosophic alignment with BUP’s overarching mission of regional healthcare capacity strengthening.

Dr. Dako has also received international recognition for his public health expertise and work on artificial intelligence and medical informatics in underserved areas. As an example, he served on the Lancet Oncology Commission US Cancer Moonshot 2.0 as Chair of the Technology, Digital Health and AI section. Through his work as a researcher and program leader he has proven his ability to secure funding from diverse sources, including the Google Foundation, RSNA and NIH. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with colleagues across government, private, and academic sectors and institutions, and has worked in partnership with colleagues from over a dozen different nations.