Peter Piot is the Director of the School and a Handa Professor of Global Health. Following his medical degree from the University of Ghent (1974), he carried out a PhD in Microbiology at the University of Antwerp (1980). He is best known for co-discovering the Ebola virus in Zaire and his research on HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and women’s health, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. He has worked for the United Nations and World Health Organisation driving global AIDS programmes. He is also the first Chair of Her Majesty’s Government’s Strategic Coherence of ODA-funded Research Board, UK; Chair of the King Baudouin Foundation (KBF), USA; and of the African Health Research Institute, South Africa. He is Vice-Chair of the Global Health Innovation Technology Fund, Tokyo, member of the Board of the Novartis Foundation, Basel, and of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI). He was appointed as Special Advisor to the President of the European Commission on research and innovation for COVID-19 in May 2020.
Scientist: Peter Piot

Peter Piot interview: The pandemic has catapulted science to the forefront of policy-making
Interview with Peter Piot, Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Special Advisor to the President of the European Commission on the response to the coronavirus and COVID-19: how science has been feeding into policy-making? What does your role as EU special advisor on COVID-19 entail? Peter Piot: I am part ...