Peter Piot
Professor Peter Piot KCMG MD PhD, is the Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Handa Professor of Global Health. He was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations (1995-2008).
A clinician and microbiologist by training, Professor Piot co-discovered the Ebola virus in Zaire in 1976, and conducted pioneering research on HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa. He is the Chair of the UK’s Strategic Coherence of ODA-funded Research Board, London; of the King Baudouin Foundation USA, New York; and of the African Health Research Institute, Durban. He is Vice-Chair of the Global Health Innovation Technology Fund, Tokyo, and member of the Board of the Novartis Foundation, Basel; the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, and Sentebale. He is a Special Advisor to the President of the European Commission on research and innovation for COVID-19.
He was knighted as KCMG in the UK, made a Baron in his native Belgium, and was awarded a Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun of Japan. He has received numerous awards for his research and service, and has published over 600 scientific articles and 16 books, including his memoir, No Time to Lose, translated into 5 languages.