Badou Gaye, the Head of Information Technology (IT) is a Gambian who plays a pivotal leadership role in strengthening the quality of IT management systems and improve coordination of IT related activities across the MRC Unit The Gambia (MRCG) and Medical Research Council UK. His professional background is in IT Systems Administration, Information Security and he completed his first degree at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. Currently, Badou is undertaking his dissertation in Msc. Information Systems. Badou is a Certified Microsoft System Engineer, Information Security Analyst and a Virtualization enthusiast which has given him a vast amount of experience in managing complex IT infrastructures.
Badou was employed as the Head of IT in 2013 and over the years, Badou has provided high quality IT/IS services (data and voice) in support of research and administrative functions at the MRCG. Working with the Director of Operations, Badou has successfully aligned the IT strategy of the MRCG towards providing excellent scientific research to establish more effective cross cover of specialized expertise and drive improvements in operational efficiency. In his capacity as the Head of IT, Badou has persistently defined cases for future IT requirements, built around business re-engineering addressing the technical and financial implications for change. Badou has a track record of delivering remarkable Information Communication Technology (ICT) services, managing a unique and complex computing environment consisting of Windows, Linux, Macs to support world-class scientific research. This complex infrastructure includes a Wide-Area-Network spanning from MRCG sites of Keneba, Basse and Fajara. Badou effectively manages a large scale storage sub-system, with high-performance computing (HPC) for scientific applications like Bioinformatics, virtualisation technologies and other cutting-edge scientific equipment.

As MRCG operations is highly dependent on computers. Over the last few years, MRCG has seen the number of computers, local area network and storage capacity substantially increased. This expansion has increased the number of users and the range of softwares used by MRCG. While based at the main site in Fajara, the Computer Centre also supports computer facilities at the upcountry Field sites in Keneba and Basse.

Under his leadership, Badou’s department provides an effective, efficient and economic operational IT service to support the entire research infrastructure of MRC Unit The Gambia.

Read more about the recently completed project lead by Badou. http://www.mrc.gm/mrc-africa-backup-project-research-data-protection/