Jonathan Van-Tam Keynote Speaker

Dr. Jonathan Van-Tam is a pioneering epidemiologist, public health advocate and former Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England (2017 – 2022).

Jonathan Van-Tam (JVT) graduated in Medicine from the University of Nottingham in 1987. After 5 years of hospital-based clinical medicine, he pursued an academic training in public health and epidemiology with a special interest in influenza and respiratory viruses. He became a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of Nottingham (and Consultant Regional Epidemiologist, Public Health Laboratory Service) in 1997, before joining the pharmaceutical industry as an Associate Director (Anti-Infectives, New Product Development) at SmithKline Beecham in 2000. After a move to Roche as Head of Medical Affairs (UK) where he launched oseltamivir (Tamiflu®), he joined Aventis Pasteur MSD as UK Medical Director, with clinical responsibility for its large vaccine portfolio.

He returned to the public sector in 2004 at the Health Protection Agency Centre for Infections (Colindale), where he was Head of the Pandemic Influenza Office until October 2007. JVT then returned to Nottingham as Professor of Health Protection, maintaining his 25-year special interest in influenza and other respiratory viruses: epidemiology; transmission; vaccinology; antiviral drugs; and pandemic preparedness. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers (generating over 21,000 citations) and written multiple chapters in textbooks. His h- & i10-indices are respectively 70 and 171 (Google Scholar), with a field-rated citation impact of over 17 (SciVal).

He chaired the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Expert Advisory Group on H5N1 vaccines, and was a member of the UK national Scientific Pandemic Influenza Committee (SPI) from 2005 to 2009, and a member of the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) during the 2009-10 A/H1N1 influenza pandemic. In addition, he has acted as a short-term consultant and temporary adviser to the World Health Organization (WHO), ECDC, and the European Commission (EC) on multiple occasions since 2005.

He is Senior Editor of the highly rated textbook: “Introduction to Pandemic Influenza” which he published in November 2009, with a Second Edition following in December 2013; and from 2014-2017 was Editor-in-Chief of Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses (John Wiley & Sons Inc.).

In late 2014 he became Chair of the UK’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group (NERVTAG): the Department of Health’s senior scientific and clinical advisory committee for pandemic influenza and other emerging respiratory virus threats. He ran a WHO official Collaborating Centre for pandemic influenza at Nottingham University from 2010-2017.

From October 2017 until March 2022 JVT was seconded to the Department of Health and Social Care, England as Deputy Chief Medical Officer where his portfolio was vaccines, pharmaceuticals, health protection, and biosecurity. In that role he has been extensively involved in domestic vaccines policy, seasonal influenza, infectious disease incidents (Ebola, Monkey Pox), the Novichok attack, and the Covid-19 pandemic, including every aspect of the successful UK vaccine procurement and deployment programme. He was a member of the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and co-Chair of the Global Health Security Advisory Group (GHSAG) Pandemic Influenza Working Group (PIWG). He has received multiple awards and accolades for his public communication of science and was awarded a Knighthood for services to Public Health in 2022.