Fredros Okumu is director of science at the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI). Since 2008, Okumu has been studying human-mosquito interactions and developing new techniques to complement existing malaria interventions and accelerate efforts towards elimination. His other interests include quantitative ecology of residual malaria vectors, mathematical simulations to predict effectiveness of interventions, improved housing for marginalized communities and prevention of child malnutrition.

Okumu was awarded the Young Investigator Award by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2009, a Welcome Trust Intermediate Research Fellowship in Public Health and Tropical Medicine (2014-2019) and, most recently, a Howard Hughes-Gates International Research Scholarship (2018-2023). He is co-chair of the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda consultative group on tools for elimination and a co-chair of the WHO Vector Control Working Group on new tools for malaria vector control. Okumu was named one of the "Top 100 Global Thinkers" by Foreign Policy in 2016.