David Heymann holds a BA in general science from Penn State University, an M.D from Wake Forest School of Medicine, and a DTM&H from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). He is currently Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at LSHTM and Head of the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House, London. From 2012 to March 2017 he was chairman of Public Health England.



For 22 years Heymann was based at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva on secondment from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during which time he rose from Chief of Research of the Global Programme on AIDS to Founding Director of the Programme on Emerging and other Communicable Diseases. He then was named Executive Director of the Communicable Diseases Cluster, a position from which he headed the global response to SARS, and finally was named Assistant Director for Health Security and the Director General’s Representative for Polio Eradication.



Before joining WHO Heymann was based for 13 years in sub-Saharan Africa on assignment from CDC where he worked Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC and Malawi. During this period he participated in the response to the first, second and third outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in DRC, investigated human monkeypox outbreaks throughout central and western Africa, and supported ministries of health in field research aimed at better control of malaria, measles, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. Prior to joining CDC Heymann worked in India for two years as a medical epidemiologist in the WHO smallpox eradication programme.



Heymann is an elected fellow of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (US) and the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK), and has received seven different public health awards, including the Heinz Award on the Human Condition, that have provided funding for the establishment of an on-going mentorship programme at the International Association of Public Health Institutes (IANPHI).



Heymann has published over 200 peer reviewed articles, commentaries and book chapters, and is the editor of the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual, a major global reference for public health and health protection. In 2009 he was appointed an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for service to global public health.

David Addiss, MD, MPH is Director of the Focus Area for Compassion and Ethics (FACE) at the Task Force for Global Health in Decatur, Georgia. For 20 years he worked on neglected tropical diseases as a medical epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has held positions in academia, migrant health, and philanthropy.

Nationality: Dutch

Position: Associate Professor, Department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC, The Netherlands

Research Fields: Pathogenesis of respiratory virus infections; Neurological complications; Systemic Inflammation; Influenza A viruses; SARS-CoV-2; Enterovirus D-68;

Short description:
Debby van Riel is an Associate Professor at the Department of Viroscience, Erasmus MC, The Netherlands. After obtaining her MSc at the John Moores University in the UK, she continued her PhD studying the cell tropism of influenza viruses, which she defended in 2010. Since then her research focuses on the pathogenesis of extra-respiratory complications of respiratory virus infections, such as influenza A viruses (seasonal, pandemic and zoonotic influenza viruses), Enterovirus-D68, and SARS-CoV-2. These studies have revealed important new insights into the mechanism of systemic virus dissemination, routes of virus invasion into the central nervous system, systemic inflammatory responses, and the development of central nervous system complications. Her work has been published in leading scientific journals including Science, Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Materials and Trends in Neurosciences and she received multiple prestigious personal grants (a.o. Veni, Vidi, Aspasia, EUR fellowship, Erasmus MC fellowships) and prizes (ESWI award, Beijerinck Premium).

Position: Journalist, New Scientist

Debora MacKenzie has been a major contributor to New Scientist, the British science and technology weekly, since 1982. For many years she has mostly written about infectious disease, arms control, resource management, fisheries, food production, issues emerging from social complexity and the scientific understanding of social phenomena such as migration, denialism, economic development and political organisation. Her educational background is in biology, with graduate work in electrophysiology and pharmacology. She has lived in continental Europe since 1980, formerly in Brussels, currently near Geneva, Switzerland.

Her recent book “Stopping the next pandemic, how COVID-19 can help us save humanity” was published in 2020 and revised in 2021 published by The Bridge Street Press:

In a gripping, accessible narrative, she lays out the shocking story of how the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic happened and how to make sure this never happens again.

Dexter Wiseman is a Clinical Research Fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute and an Honorary SpR at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS trust. He is also a trainee Respiratory and General Internal Medicine physician in the North West London deanery.

As part of his research project Dexter is currently working in Professor Jadwiga 'Wisia' Wedzicha's lab, helping run the London COPD exacerbation cohort. His research interests include viral causes for COPD exacerbation, specifically looking at the role RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) has to play both at exacerbation and during periods of stability.

Dexter is a member of the international consortium RESCEU (REspiratory Syncytial virus Consortium in EUrope) and works closely with Professor Peter Openshaw and Dr Ryan Thwaites investigating the immunological markers of RSV susceptibility in COPD patients.

Dipti Patel is a specialist in occupational medicine and travel medicine. She is Director of the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC) in the UK, and the Chief Medical Officer at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). She is also an Honorary Lecturer in Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care within the School of Health Sciences at Manchester University.

She is a member of the UK Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention, the Travel Subcommittee of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, and the WHO International Travel and Health Guideline Development Group.

Dipti is an associate editor for Travel Medicine and Infectious Diseases, and co- editor of the ABC of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Nationality: British

Position: Professor, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

Research fields: Molecular biology of influenza viruses

ESWI member since 2015

Prof. Hutchinson received his PhD from the University of Cambridge and was then a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Oxford from 2009 – 2016. In 2016, he set up a research group at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, where he is now Professor of Molecular and Cellular Virology.

Hutchinson’s research looks at the factors that make influenza and other respiratory viruses infectious, including the morphology and composition of virus particles, the way in which viruses interact and spread within the host and how these factors shape the course of a respiratory infection. He was named ‘Young Microbiologist of the Year’ by the Microbiology Society in 2007 and has held fellowships including a Junior Research Fellowship at Worcester College Oxford (2010 – 2014) and an MRC Career Development Award (2016 – 2021).

Hutchinson has an ongoing interest in science communication, winning the 2008 Biosciences Federation’s New Researcher Science Communication Award and the 2021 Microbiology Society’s Microbiology Outreach Prize, and in the training of postgraduate research students and early-career researchers. As well as being a member of ESWI since 2015, he sits on the Microbiology Society’s Virus Division and leads the Steering Group for the UK’s Influenza Update Meetings.

Dr Walsh received an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Manhattan College and an MD degree from SUNY-Downstate Medical Center in 1974. He completed his residency at the URMC Strong Memorial Hospital in 1977 and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases in 1982. Since then he has been faculty in the Department of Medicine and a member Infectious Diseases division at the University of Rochester. Dr Walsh is head of the ID unit at Rochester General Hospital where his clinical activities and research activities are based.

Professor Eddie Holmes is known for his work on the evolution and emergence of infectious diseases, particularly the mechanisms by which RNA viruses jump species boundaries to emerge in humans and other animals. He currently holds an NHMRC Leadership Fellowship and is Professor of Virology at the University of Sydney. He moved to the University of Sydney in 2012. He has studied the emergence and spread of such pathogens as SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus, dengue virus, HIV, hepatitis C virus, myxoma virus, RHDV and Yersinia pestis. His previous appointments include Verne M. Willaman Chair in the Life Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University, USA, and Affiliate Member of the Fogarty International Centre (2005-2012), National Institutes of Health, USA. From 1999-2004 he was Fellow of New College, Oxford. In 2021 he received the (Australian) Prime Minister's Prize for Science. He is the author of 713 peer-reviewed papers and two books. 

Elizabeth Kuiper is Associate Director and Head of the Social Europe and Well- being programme at the European Policy Centre.  

 

Beyond her role as an Associate Director, Elizabeth heads the EPC's Social Europe and Well-being programme. Her focus is on EU health policy and further developing the concept of the economy of well-being, linking up the EPC's research on health care, social equality, sustainability and economic governance.  

 

Before joining the EPC, Elizabeth was Executive Director Public Affairs at the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), where she was leading the organisation’s advocacy and external engagement strategy and maintained a strong network of contacts with policymakers and other stakeholders. Amongst others, she led the industry’s Brexit Task Force and created the Brexit4Patients multistakeholder coalition, to ensure that patients’ interest were put first in the Brexit negotiations.   

 

In 2010, Elizabeth transferred to the Permanent Representation of the Netherlands to the EU in Brussels. There, she represented the Netherlands’ interests on health policies, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. She led negotiations on (inter alia) the Clinical Trials regulation, the Medical Devices Regulation and the Transparency Directive; and followed the European Semester process, including the implementation of the Country Specific Recommendations at national level. During her tenure at the Permanent Representation, she was responsible for briefing the Coreper-I Ambassador on healthcare related files and advised and supported senior officials and government Ministers before, during, and after EU negotiations. She also represented the Netherlands at relevant public/stakeholder events. 

 

Early in her career, she served as a political advisor to the Dutch Minister of Health, Welfare and Sports in the Balkenende-IV cabinet. She was responsible for managing relations with Members of Parliament and offered political advice and support to the Minister of Health on issues related to healthcare and social policy. In this role, Elizabeth regularly accompanied and assisted the Minister to Brussels for EPSCO Councils, as well as to Members States holding the Council of the Presidency of the European Union for so-called informal meetings of Health Ministers. She also assisted the Minister of Health in his engagement with US policymakers in the context of ongoing discussions about the Health Care Reform legislation, eventually leading to the adoption of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.  

 

Elizabeth lives in Brussels and enjoys reading political biographies and visiting contemporary art exhibitions as much as she can. She also fights fast fashion in her capacity as Brand Ambassador for a sustainable fashion brand. 

Dr Emilie Karafillakis, is an Assistant Professor and the European Director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the Vaccine Confidence Project™, at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of Antwerp. She has more than 10 years of experience in international research and teaching in academia. With a background in public health, infectious disease control, and health systems and policies research, her work focuses on understanding individual and group beliefs, attitudes and confidence in health interventions and assess how these can influence public health control measures and health promotion strategies, including vaccination. She has extensive experience on issues of vaccine confidence in Europe, including among parents, adolescents, pregnant women and healthcare professionals.

Dr. Simoes is working with the World Health Organization for the management of common pediatric conditions in developing countries (Integrated Management of Childhood Illness) and studies the epidemiology, pathogenesis, and prevention of the short- and long-term effects of respiratory syncytial virus infection in children. Dr. Simoes has played a significant role in the World Health Organization's initiative to reduce childhood and infant mortality throughout the world with the development of a strategy called "Integrated Management of Childhood Illness." He has worked on this initiative since 1989, including testing and implementing its guidelines in many countries throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Nationality: British, Slovakian-Hungarian

Position: Professor of Virology

Research Fields: Influenza virus molecular biology

Short discription:

Professor Fodor obtained his MSc in Chemical Technology from the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. He worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Virology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava before pursuing graduate studies with Professor George Brownlee at the University of Oxford, where he earned his DPhil in Pathology in 1995. After completing his doctorate, he conducted postdoctoral research with Dr Peter Palese at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York. In 2002, he was awarded an MRC Senior Non-Clinical Research Fellowship to establish his research group in the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at the University of Oxford. After a brief period as an Associate Professor, he was appointed as Professor of Virology in 2011 at the University of Oxford.

Professor Fodor’s research interests are centred on RNA viruses, particularly influenza viruses, and more recently coronaviruses. His research focuses on the fundamental molecular mechanisms used by viruses to transcribe and replicate their RNA genome, the role of host factors in these processes, and cellular responses to viral infection. In collaboration with Professor Jonathan Grimes from the Division of Structural Biology at the University of Oxford, he contributed to understanding the structural basis of influenza virus RNA synthesis by determining structures of the influenza virus RNA polymerase complex.

Professor Fodor has published extensively in leading scientific journals, including Nature, Nature Microbiology, Cell, Molecular Cell, and PNAS. He is the recipient of the 2019 AstraZeneca Award from the Biochemical Society. Professor Fodor is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and was elected as a member of EMBO in 2021.

Dr Federica Morandi, Phd is Assistant Professor of Organisation Theory and Human Resource Management at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Director of Academic Programs and Research in ALTEMS (Rome, Italy).  She is a member of the EHMA Programme Directors’ Group. Her research interests include the managerial and practical implications of the introduction of new organisational models within healthcare organizations, the study of the behavioural features of healthcare professionals, the human resource management policies, and perspectives within hospitals. Federica’s work has been published in internationally renowned journals. Federica’s research have been presented in a number of international conferences.

MD, PhD, Head of Paediatrics, Director of Translational Paediatrics and Infectious Diseases at the Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago (Spain), Associate Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Santiago and Academician of the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery of Galicia.
His main research interests are: vaccines, infectious diseases, meningococcal disease, host genetics, and biomarkers. He has directly managed or directed as PI more than 50 competitive research projects (2 FP7, 4 H2020 and 3 IMI2), 80 phase I to III vaccine clinical trials, and 25 collaboration grants related to infectious diseases and genomics.

Nationality: Ethiopian

Position: PhD Student, Addis Ababa University and Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Research Fields: Viral Etiologies and diagnostic biomarkers of acute lower respiratory infections, the burden and prevention strategies options of RSV in Africa

Short description:  Fiseha Wadilo Wada has successfully completed his Bachelor's Degree (BSc) in Medical Laboratory Technology, followed by earning his Master's Degree (MSc) in Medical Microbiology. He has been serving as a university lecturer at Wolaita Sodo University for over four years, where he teaches courses such as medical microbiology, immunology, virology, parasitology, and clinical laboratory methods. Furthermore, he has published 19 research papers in reputable international journals. Currently, his research focuses on investigating the viral etiologies and diagnostic biomarkers of acute lower respiratory infections in children under the age of five in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is also actively involved in researching various prevention strategies for RSV.

Nationality: Austrian

Position: Professor of Vaccinology at the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York, USA) and Professor of Infection Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna (Austria)

ESWI member since 2022

Florian Krammer, PhD, graduated from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. He received his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Palese at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York working on hemagglutinin stalk-based immunity and universal influenza virus vaccines. 

In 2014 he became an independent principal investigator and is currently the endowed Mount Sinai Professor of Vaccinology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is also the co-director of the Center for Vaccine Research and Pandemic Preparedness (C-VaRPP). Furthermore, since 2024, Dr. Krammer is Professor for Infection Medicine at the Ignaz Semmelweis Institute at the Medical University of Vienna. 

Dr. Krammer's work focuses on understanding the mechanisms of interactions between antibodies and viral surface glycoproteins and on translating this work into novel, broadly protective vaccines and therapeutics. The main target is influenza virus but he is also working on coronaviruses, flaviviruses, hantaviruses, filoviruses and arenaviruses. He has published more than 400 papers on these topics. Since 2019, Dr. Krammer has served as principal investigator of the Sinai-Emory Multi-Institutional Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Center (SEM-CIVIC), which develops improved seasonal and universal influenza virus vaccines that induce long-lasting protection against drifted seasonal, zoonotic and future pandemic influenza viruses.

Nationality: French

Position: Professor Risk Management at the University of Stavanger, Norway

Short Description:

He is a recognised expert in risk policy analysis and has deployed this expertise to develop and maintain strategic international policy networks.  His awareness of the role that new modes of governance and the media play in policy making is a central pillar of his research. Frederic Bouder has integrated cognitive insights from decision science into making risk policy more science-informed. Frederic Bouder has made tangible impacts on policy, in particular several of his recommendations have been endorsed and implemented by European and national regulators and policymakers.

Experienced Executive Director with an award winning history of innovation for social change. An experienced NGO leader with an interest in the intersection of health and human rights. My practice focus is on strategy, evaluation, and governance.

Nationality: British and Cypriot

Position: Family Physician. National Immunisation Lead Royal College of General Practitioners. President British Global & Travel Health Association.

Research Fields: Primary Care Vaccinations

Dr George Kassianos is a GP and the National Immunisation Lead of the Royal College of General Practitioners of which he is a Fellow. He is also President and Fellow of the British Global and Travel Health Association (BGTHA) and Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Glasgow (RCPSG), the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM), the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), the British and Irish Hypertension Society (BIHS), The Academy of Medical Educators, and the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Kassianos is Chair of RAISE [Raise Awareness of Influenza Strategies in Europe], a Pan-European Group (20 countries) on influenza, and Board Member of the European Scientific Working Group on Influenza (ESWI). He has served as medical editor of four medical journals, currently serves on a number of editorial boards, and is Associate Editor (Primary Care) of ‘Drugs In Context’ international journal.

Dr Kassianos was the recipient of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Foundation Council Award (2018), the most prestigious award for services to the College and General Practice.

In October 2020, Queen Elizabeth II appointed Dr Kassianos Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to General Practice and Travel Medicine.

Nationality: German

Position: Head of Department, Leibniz Institute of Virology (Germany); and Professor of Virology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany

Research fields: Interspecies transmission and pathogenesis of influenza A viruses; High-risk groups of influenza (pregnancy, asthma, obesity); New antiviral strategies against influenza

ESWI member since 2009

Gülşah Gabriel is head of the department Viral Zoonoses - One Health at the Leibniz Institute of Virology (LIV) in Hamburg and professor for Viral Zoonoses at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. Her research focus is to understand the molecular basis of influenza A virus interspecies transmission from birds to humans as well as pathomechanisms in high-risk groups.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, her research group was among the first to identify key pathomechanisms that are currently discussed to contribute to long-term consequences after acute respiratory infections. These include SARS-CoV-2 replication in human adipose tissue (Zickler et al., Cell Metabolism 2022) and altered sex hormone metabolism in COVID-19 patients (Schroeder et al., Emerging Microbes & Infections 2021; Stanelle-Bertram et al., Cell Reports Medicine 2023).

In 2009, Gülşah Gabriel was the first winner of the ESWI Best Body of Work Award. She was elected Vice Chair of ESWI in 2014. She has received many prestigious awards for her research, e.g. the Robert-Koch Förderpreis awarded from the Robert-Koch Foundation, the Best Minds Award from the Leibniz Association and the DZIF Award for Translational Infection Research from the German Center for Infection.

Since 2024, Gülşah Gabriel is speaker of the newly established Leibniz Lab Pandemic Preparedness: One Health, One Future that combines the expertise of 41 Leibniz Institutes from various disciplines with practical knowledge to develop evidence-based strategies that permanently strengthen the pandemic resilience of science and society.

Guus F. Rimmelzwaan is Alexander von Humboldt Professor in Virology at the Research Center for Emerging Infections and Zoonoses (RIZ) of the University of Veterinary Medicine (TiHo) in Hannover. His main research interests are virus vaccine development, immunologic defense mechanisms against influenza and other virus infections, Viral immune evasion and Virus-host interactions.

Guus Rimmelzwaan was trained as a biologist (MSc) at the Free University of Amsterdam. He obtained his PhD in 1990 on the thesis entitled “ Canine parvovirus infection: Novel approaches to diagnosis and immune prophylaxis” at the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection, Bilthoven, The Netherlands, where he also worked as post-doctoral fellow on FIV vaccine development between 1990 and 1992. Between 1992 and 1994 he worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the field of HIV-1 vaccine development at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, MD, USA. Between 1994 and 2017, he worked as professor in Immuno-virology at the Department of Viroscience of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands as workgroup leader of the influenza immunology group.

Guus Rimmelzwaan (co)-authored >330 articles and contributed to various books related to vaccinology. He organized courses in virology for PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and clinical microbiologists and a Practical Training Course in Influenza. He also participated as expert in various national committees on the prevention of influenza.



 

Hanna Nohynek is a Finnish MD PhD, Chief Physician with special competences in international and travel health. She works in the Infectious Diseases Control and Vaccines Unit, Dept Health Security at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), which is a governmental public health research agency. She served as the secretary of the Finnish NITAG until 8/2023, still being a member, and is chairperson of the WHO SAGE, and former chairperson of the WHO SAGE working group on covid-19 vaccines. After coordinating several Phase II trials and major Phase III trial on 11PCV against childhood pneumonia in the Philippines until 2010, Nohynek joined THL, where her research responsibilities are in register-based vaccine impact studies, evidence-based policy/decision making, vaccine safety, acceptance, SARS-CoV-2, RSV, influenza, and pneumococcus. She co-leads IMI funded PROMISE consortium´s WP Preparation for future RSV product assessment (www.imi-promise.eu) and was co-leading the WP on communications of the IMI-funded DRIVE project (www.drive-eu.org). She authored >180 original articles; lectures, guides elective, graduate and PhD students. She belongs to Scientific Faculty of ADVAC (2000-), initiated EPIET vaccine module (1997-), and the Finnish Diploma Course Global Health (2000-). She initiated THL Finnish Vaccinators Manual and Finnish Travel Health Advisory. She has served expert national and international committees evaluating vaccines, and is advisor to many international organizations, incl European Medical Agency, International Vaccine Institute, Korea and icddr.b, Bangladesh.

Heidi Theeten, MD, PhD, currently has a main position in the infectious disease control team of the Care department (Departement Zorg) of the Flemish government, where she started in October 2020. She joined the vaccine subunit of this team in 2023. Next to this, she has an academic position at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease department, University of Antwerp, where she works since 2001. She coordinated clinical vaccine studies of various diseases, seroprevalence studies at national level as well as vaccination coverage studies in Flanders. As a postdoctoral researcher, she added research on CMV and immunosenescence, and on pneumococcal nasopharyngeal carriage in infants in Belgium. She still teaches in the master of Medicine at UAntwerpen and in the inter-universitary manama Youth Health Care, as an associate professor.