Dr Peter Piot
Professor at LSHTM and adviser to President Ursula von Der Leyen of the European Commission
Peter Piot is one of the world’s most prominent leaders in global health. He has been bringing critical health issues to the forefront of international, regional and national political and economic fora, and continues to in his role as Special Advisor to the EC President. He has been instrumental in the launch of major global health initiatives, such as UNAIDS, the Global Fund, GHIT, CEPI and EU HERA. As founding Director of UNAIDS he played a key role in ensuring access to life saving antiretroviral therapy in low income countries. His policy influence is grounded in seminal research such as the co-discovery of the Ebola virus, and some of the earliest medical, epidemiological and virological work on HIV/AIDS, mostly in Saharan Africa.
Peter Piot MD PhD is a Professor of Global Health and former Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is EU Chief Scientific Advisor on Epidemics, and visiting professor at the Rega Institute, KU Leuven, and the National University of Singapore. He was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations. In 1995 he was made a Baron in his native Belgium, and in 2016 received a UK Knighthood. His awards include the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award , Robert Koch Gold Medal ,Prince Mahidol Award, Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize, and the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights, and was a 2014 TIME Person of the Year. His memoir, No Time to Lose, is available in 5 languages.