Dr. Remko Schats is a medical doctor from the Netherlands with a profound commitment to Global Health and Travel Medicine. Through his international missions as a former specialist in Tropical Medicine, he has demonstrated versatility and drive to make a difference to the world.

During one of his missions with Doctors Without Borders in a refugee camp in Chad, his work was documented by PBS and broadcasted globally, highlighting his dedication to serving the vulnerable in the world. Dr. Schats is part of several influential board positions in Global Health, further solidifying his leadership and expanding his network and career.

After completing missions in Africa and Asia, he earned a PhD in malaria vaccine research at Leiden University Medical Centre, achieving recognition as the first-prize winner at the 2013 American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) conference in Washington, D.C. He subsequently pursued and completed an executive MBA at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, marking the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey.

As an entrepreneur, in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Health and the Dutch National Coordination Centre for Travelers Advice (LCR), he is committed to digitizing the WHO International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP). To assure digital inter-operability of the ICVP on a global level, he is a member of the WHO ICVP global working group and an Industry Partner of openEHR International.

In parallel, he is launching the development of Enigma Global e-Health, an innovative e-health platform and electronic health record (EHR) system designed to provide travellers and individuals seamless access to their health records anytime, anywhere in the world.

Dr. Schats is a seasoned speaker at med-tech conferences and an influential leadership mentor. His impactful lectures and workshops inspire audiences to excel and achieve their goals.

For a detailed biography, visit: www.remkoschats.com/about

Dr. Andrea Farnham is an epidemiologist and senior researcher at the Global and Public Health Department of the Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Prevention Institute (EBPI) at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. Her research focuses on using digital tools to study the complex interactions between health, mobility, and the environment. She is best known in travel medicine for her work leading the TOURIST studies, one of the first digital initiatives of its kind to track health in travelers using mobile technologies. In collaboration with computer scientists, she developed an mHealth application integrating real-time GPS data, weather information, and social media analytics to geotag health events and understand how environmental factors influence health during travel. Her work in this area has produced significant insights into traveler health behaviors and risks. Her expertise extends beyond travel medicine to include digital health strategies in global health settings, where she has led projects like the MIGRANT(h) and CliMaH projects, which use digital tools to understand the health impacts of mobility, migration, and climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Farnham’s work exemplifies her commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation, bridging fields such as public health, computer science, and environmental studies.

Gerard Flaherty, Professor of Travel Medicine and International Health, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland

 MD, PhD, BSc (Hons.), MB, BCh, BAO, FRCPI, MRCPI, Cert. Travel Med. (RCSI), Dip. SEM (GB & I), FFSEM (RCPI & RCSI), FAcadMEd, DTM RCPS (Glas), FFTM RCPS (Glas), FACTM, FFTM (ACTM), MFSEM (UK), MMedSc, Dip. HSc. (Clinical Teaching), MSc Int Trav Health (Sheffield), MECOSEP, MMEd (Dundee), Diop. sa Ghaeilge, Cert. Traffic Med, Cert. Ornith., Cert. Bird Behavior, FIFA Dip. Foot. Med., PG Cert Sc. Healthcare Simulation and Patient Safety, FISTM, AFAMEE, FRGS, FIPC, MRSTMH.

 Prof. Gerard Flaherty graduated from the National University of Ireland, Galway, in 2000 with a first-class honors degree and gold medals in each of the 8 final year subjects. As an undergraduate, Gerard gained an intercalated BSc degree in Anatomy and received numerous international academic distinctions, including the Duke Elder Prizer in Ophthalmology from the Royal College of Ophthalmology (UK), and the Annual Undergraduate Prize of the Faculty of Radiology (UK). He gained Membership of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 2002 and Fellowship in 2011. He holds a Diploma in Travel Medicine from the RCPSG (Glasgow). He has completed 3 Master degrees, including a Masters in International and Travel Health (Sheffield) and Masters in Medical Education (Dundee). His two higher doctoral theses (MD, PhD) were based on his original research in travel medicine. He was elected to the role of President-elect of the International Society of Travel Medicine in May 2021 and President in May 2023. He previously served as ISTM Counselor (2015-19).

 He is a Fellow, examiner, former board member and education convener of the Faculty of Travel Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He was also the recipient of the Cameron Lockie Prize for Travel Medicine in the UK and the Donald MacLeod medal in Sports Medicine, which was presented to him by HRH The Princess Royal. He is Past President, Research Officer and current NECTM Lead of the Travel Medicine Society of Ireland. He was Chair of the Northern European Conference on Travel Medicine (NECTM) 2012 scientific committee, which the Travel Medicine Society of Ireland hosted in Dublin, and Vice-Chair of the NECTM 2014 scientific committee in Norway. He also served on the international scientific committee for the 2015 NECTM, 2016 RCISTM, 2018 NECTM, and 2022 NECTM conferences in London, South Africa, Stockholm, and Rotterdam, respectively. He was Co-Chair for the 2021 CISTM17 virtual conference, held virtually in May 2021.

 He was elected to the Executive Board of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) in 2015 and has held several leadership positions, including membership of the Examinations Committee, the Older Traveler Interest Group Council, and Chair of the Publications Oversight Committee (2019-21) and Nominating Committee (2021-23). He is the current NECTM representative on the ISTM Liaison Committee. He also chairs the CISTM19 Oversight Committee.

 He is also a member of the Asia Pacific Travel Health Society, and he has presented at the joint ACTM/APTHS webinar in August 2022. He holds an Adjunct Professorship in Travel Medicine and International Health with the International Medical University in Malaysia since 2014 and an Adjunct Professorship in Travel Medicine at Mahidol University, Thailand. Gerard’s research interests in travel medicine include risk assessment in the pre-travel consultation, travel health behavior, travelers with pre- existing medical conditions, high altitude medicine, mental health issues and travel, older travelers, technology and artificial intelligence in travel medicine, and education in travel health. He has 20 years of clinical experience in travel medicine. He has completed tropical medicine courses and expeditions in Kenya, Tanzania, Nepal, Russia, Cuba, Peru, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, Ghana, Morocco, and South Africa.

 Gerard’s previous academic position as Professor of Medical Education and Immediate Past Undergraduate Medical Program Director at NUI Galway and Head of International Students for the School of Medicine gave him responsibility for design, delivery, and assessment of the undergraduate medical curriculum, including the special study module program. He is also a Past Chair of the Curriculum Review Committee and has sat on numerous committees at school and university levels, including the university examination appeals committee. He serves as Academic Integrity Advisor for the School of Medicine, College representative on the University Discipline Committee and on the University, Society Coordinating Group. He received a President’s Award from NUI Galway for Teaching Excellence in 2008. He has been awarded a Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Educators (UK). He served on the executive committee of AMEE between 2017 and 2020. He has been awarded Associate Fellowship of AMEE. He was appointed to the role of Professor of Travel Medicine and International Health in 2021. He has over 250 publications and research presentations to date, including a textbook, and 8 textbook chapters. He has delivered invited lectures to various institutions and organizations in over 20 countries. He serves as Section Editor (non- communicable diseases) for the Journal of Travel Medicine. He is a regular reviewer for multiple travel medicine and medical education journals, including Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, Tropical Diseases, Travel Medicine and Vaccines, and Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease (TMID). He was a recent Guest Editor for a special travel medicine issue of the TMID journal.

 Gerard has worked with Croí, the West of Ireland Cardiac Foundation, for many years as a volunteer expedition physician on fundraising high-altitude treks to the Himalayas and Africa. He was instrumental in establishing the National Institute for Prevention and Cardiovascular Health, on whose Advisory Council he serves as Director of Academic Affairs and Fellowship. In addition to acting as Founder and Program Director (2013-2020) for the Masters in Preventive Cardiology program at NUI Galway, Gerard was responsible for the medical management and supervision of participants enrolled on the Croí MyAction preventive cardiology program. In his leisure time, Gerard travels, golfs, walks in forests, cares for bonsai trees, treks mountains, and bird-watches. He has been awarded Certificates in Ornithology and in Bird Behavior. He is fluent in English and Gaelic and speaks French and German with moderate proficiency.

Karen A. Goraleski is a Senior Advisor for ISTM. She previously served as its Interim Executive Director from July 2024 until June 2025.

Her career spans decades of leadership in mission-driven organizations, including 13 years as CEO of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), the largest international scientific organization of experts dedicated to reducing the worldwide burden of tropical infectious diseases and improving global health. She achieved the status of Fellow of ASTMH (FASTMH) in 2024.

During her tenure at ASTMH, she increased the Society’s influence, expanded membership, and led successful policy, advocacy, and communication efforts.

Goraleski has testified before Senate Appropriation Sub-Committees, moderated congressional briefings, and authored opinion pieces for major publications like The New York Times and The Washington Post. She has served on the Advisory Board of the NIH’s Fogarty International Center, the Steering Committee of the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), and the boards of the Global Health Council and the Campaign for Public Health.

Before ASTMH, she was Vice President of Public Health Partnerships at Research!America, where she enhanced public health advocacy and established a global health research advocacy program. She is an experienced communicator, known for translating complex issues for policymakers, the media, and the public.

Goraleski holds a Master of Social Work from the Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Bachelor of Arts from St. Xavier University in Chicago.

Annelies Wilder-Smith is Team Lead for Vaccine Development at the World Health Organization. She is also Honorary Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Past President of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM), and Editor-in-Chief of ISTM`s Journal of Travel Medicine.

 Annelies specializes in emerging viral diseases such as COVID-19, Zika, dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, influenza, and SARS. In 2003, she was at the forefront of the SARS epidemic in Singapore. She is coordinating two working groups at WHO to formulate policy recommendations for the use of COVID-19 vaccines and dengue vaccines.

 With a career spanning almost three decades, she has led and co-led various clinical trials, published more than 380 scientific papers, edited and co-edited textbooks and travel medicine books, served on various editorial boards and scientific committees, including as Editorial Consultant to The Lancet. Her awards include the Myrone Levine Vaccinology Prize, the Honor Group Award for exemplary leadership and coordination in determining and communicating global yellow fever risk presented at the CDC Award Ceremony, the Mercator Professorship award by the German Research Foundation and the Ashdown Oration Award by the Australian College of Travel Medicine. She was the Principal Investigator of an EU funded international consortium called “ZikaPLAN” (https://zikaplan.tghn.org/), and also completed another 4 year research project on dengue, also funded by the European Commission.

Davidson Hamer, MD is a Professor of Global Health and Medicine at the Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine, the co-lead of the climate change and emerging infectious diseases research core at the BU Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases, and an attending physician in infectious diseases and Director of the Travel Clinic at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Hamer is a board-certified infectious disease specialist and medical epidemiologist with particular interests in maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition (MNCH&N) in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), emerging arboviral diseases, tropical medicine, travel medicine, infection control, and antimicrobial resistance.

Dr. Hamer has been involved in travel medicine for thirty years and from 2014 to 2021, Dr. Hamer served as the principal investigator and, since September 2021, as the Surveillance Lead, of GeoSentinel, a global surveillance network of 70 sites in 30 countries that uses returning travelers, immigrants, and refugees as sentinels of disease emergence and transmission patterns throughout the world. At Boston Medical Center, he is the PI for several studies of enhanced screening, diagnosis, and management of migrants with Chagas disease and he is part of two national US Chagas disease consortia.

Dr. Hamer is currently the Scientific Program Chair for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Section Editor for the Journal of Travel Medicine (sentinel surveillance in travelers) and the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (global health and Chagas disease). He also serves as the Secretary-Treasurer for the GeoSentinel Foundation. He has nearly 500 publications that cover a range of topics within the fields of global health (MNCH&N), travel medicine, COVID-19, and the epidemiology of disease in returning travelers.

Professor Tomas Jelinek is the medical director of the Berlin Centre for Travel & Tropical Medicine (www.bcrt.de) and the scientific director of the Centre for Travel Medicine in Düsseldorf (www.crm.de), both in Germany.

He holds a lectureship at the Institute of Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Cologne. He has been appointed Consulting Expert to WHO on travel medicine in 2009 and as member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2015.

Tomas Jelinek studied medicine and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt am Main and graduated in 1993. He continued his medical training at the Department of Infectious Diseases & Tropical Medicine of the University of Munich and was board certified for internal medicine in 2000, for tropical medicine in 2001, and for infectious diseases in 2003. He holds diplomas in travel medicine, mountain medicine and expedition medicine. He founded TropNetEurope, the European Network on the Surveillance of Imported Infectious Diseases in 1998 and co-ordinated the network until 2010.

His professional international experience includes work in Brazil, PR China, UK, India, Kenya, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Malawi, Portugal, South Africa, Uganda, and the USA.

His published work includes 159 original papers, 74 reviews, and 72 books or book chapters.

Dr. Dipti Patel is a consultant in occupational medicine and travel medicine. She is Director of the National Travel Health Network and Centre (NaTHNaC), and the Chief Medical Officer at the 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 Immunization, and the WHO International Travel and Health Guideline Development Group.

Sophie Schneitler is a trained infectious disease specialist and clinical microbiologist, having completed her education at the universities of Düsseldorf, Leipzig, and Saarland in Germany. With a particular focus on travel and tropical medicine, she has dedicated her career to understanding and addressing the health challenges faced by travellers and populations in tropical regions. Sophie Schneitler is a senior physician at the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene at the University Hospital of Saarland. She leads the outpatient clinic for travel and tropical medicine, where she provides expert care and guidance to patients regarding travel-related health issues.

Throughout her professional journey, Sophie has gained extensive work experience across South America, Africa, and Asia. This international exposure has enriched her understanding of diverse health systems and the unique infectious diseases prevalent in different geographical areas. Her hands-on experience in these regions has not only enhanced her clinical skills but has also deepened her commitment to improving travel health and tropical medicine.

Sophie is actively engaged in both scientific research and clinical practice within the field of travel health. She combines her expertise in clinical microbiology with the practical aspects of travel medicine, allowing her to address the complexities of infectious diseases that travellers may encounter.

In addition to her clinical responsibilities, Sophie is passionate about advancing knowledge in her field through research. She collaborates with various institutions and organizations to conduct studies that aim to improve health outcomes for travellers and communities affected by tropical diseases. Her research interests include the epidemiology of infectious diseases, the effectiveness of preventive measures, and the development of guidelines for safe travel.

Prof Maeve Eogan is an Obstetrician and Gynecologist at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, Ireland which has provided maternity, neonatal and gynecology care for 280 years! She is also National Clinical Lead for the Irish Sexual Assault Treatment Units (SATU) and is an associate professor in University College Dublin (UCD) and the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI). Prof Eogan’s special interests are health promotion in pregnancy, inclusion health, optimizing access to responsive healthcare, prevention and management of pelvic floor issues after birth and provision of care for people who have experienced sexual violence. She has undertaken and number of research projects in these contexts and has published and presented widely.  The Irish SATU network comprises 6 sexual assault treatment units, providing clinical, forensic and supportive care (free of charge) for anyone of any gender aged 14 years and over who discloses sexual violence. Further information on the services and relevant clinical guidelines are available at hse.ie/

Dr Marta Sanz Gonzalez is an Infectious Diseases, Medical Microbiology and General Internal Medicine Consultant currently working at the Infectious Diseases Department and Tropical Medicine Unit at the University Hospital Ramon y Cajal in Madrid, Spain. She trained both in Spain and the UK where she completed an MSc in Tropical Medicine & International Health at the London School of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (LSTHM). She has a special interest in Neglected Tropical Diseases and neglected populations. She has collaborated with different NGOs including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), where she now serves as Board Member and Medical Committee Chair (MSF Spain-OCBA). 

Dr Oula Itani is an Infectious Diseases physician at the Medical Center of the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, where she started working after training in travel medicine and tropical diseases. Aside from her clinical work in the travel clinic for pre-travel counselling and post-travel management, she also participates in France’s largest rabies center, where roughly 1400 patients are seen yearly for post-exposure prophylaxis.  

Dr Conor Maguire

BA, MSc (MedSci), MB, BCh, BAO, MICGP, FRCGP,  FFTMRCPS(Glasg), DCH, DOBs, CTH.

Conor is a full time principal in a six doctor GP practice at the Glencairn Medical Centre, Leopardstown Valley, Dublin, Ireland. He has special interests in Travel Medicine and Infectious Diseases and postgraduate training in General Practice.

Conor is a medical graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, member of the Irish College of General Practitioners, Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners and Fellow of the Faculty of Travel Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He holds the CTH of the ISTM since 2008.

He is a trainer in General Practice with the ICGP and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He was appointed member of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee of Ireland, from 2016 to 2022, representing the interests of General Practice and advising the Irish government and health service during the COVID19 vaccination campaign in Ireland. More recently he worked with the Health Information and Quality Authority of Ireland as a member of the expert advisory group for a Health Technology Assessment of Varicella and Zoster vaccines.

He is a past President of the Travel Medicine Society of Ireland, and served on the steering committee of two NECTM conferences on Travel Medicine, in Stockholm 2018 and Dublin in 2012.

He was a member of Editorial Board of Journal of Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, from 2018 to 2022 and editor, of the Newsletter of the Travel Medicine Society of Ireland, from 2007 to 2016.

Conor has always promoted and campaigned for the inclusion of Travel Medicine as a core subject in undergraduate and postgraduate training in General Practice and is a regular invited speaker at conferences, courses and teaching engagements in General Practice and Travel Medicine with the Irish College of General Practitioners, NECTM, WONCA, the Irish Practice Nurses Association and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

In 2019 he was decorated Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite by President Emmanuel Macron, President of France, for services to the French community in Ireland.

Professor Dr Patrick Soentjens is an infectious diseases specialist with clinical expertise in the field of HIV, sexual transmitted diseases, tropical diseases, outbreaks and severe multiresistant infections.

 The past nineteen years his team carried out investigator-driven clinical vaccine trials on alternative and shorter intradermal vaccine schedules with microdosisses of existing rabies vaccines. He conducted three large pivotal studies (between 2011-2017) which greatly contributed to a revision of the WHO recommendations on rabies vaccination in 2018. He’s constructing a research portfolio investigating novel ways to vaccinate travellers and soldiers with new and shorter intradermal regimens of new and existing vaccines.

 As Medical Director at the Policlinic at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, he is responsible for the strategy, the vision and the management of the medical services at ITM. A open access travel medicine website and app www.wanda.be was implemented under his leadership in November 2019.

As Medical Colonel at the Centre for Infectious Diseases at the Military Hospital in Brussels he is launching different research projects in infectious diseases and travel medicine. 

 The aim of this workshop is to familiarise you with how best to deal with various clinical cases involving rabies risk in real-life settings. Prepare to be surprised!

Professor Leo Visser studied medicine at the University of Leuven in Belgium. He specialized in Infectious Diseases at the Leiden University Medical Center, where he obtained his PhD (1997). He was appointed as Professor in Infectious Diseases and Travel Medicine in 2014. For many years, Professor Visser is involved in clinical care, research, teaching and training in internal medicine and infectious diseases, with the emphasis on vaccinology, vaccine-preventable and tropical infectious diseases, travel medicine and global health. Professor Visser holds a position as Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases and LUMC travel clinic at the LUMC. The travel clinic is member of the Leiden Vaccine Group and is a centre of expertise for travel medicine and vaccination research in The Netherlands.

Professor Visser holds several positions at national and international committees and scientific organizations. Currently, Professor Visser is a member of the European Expert Committee for Travel Medicine. In the past he was, amongst others, member of the steering committee of the European Network on the Surveillance of Imported Infectious Diseases (www.tropnet.eu), chair of the National Coordination Centre for Travellers' Health Advice (LCR), and former President of the International Society of Travel Medicine. His current research activities involve the safety and immunogenicity of alternative vaccination routes and vaccine responses in the more vulnerable individual with chronic diseases, advanced age, or immunosuppressed in particular those following solid organ transplantation or receiving immunobiologicals.

Dr. Shlim is the author of over fifty-five original research papers and has written over twenty chapters in textbooks on travel medicine. He is an editor of the CDC’s Health Information for International Travel, and a co-author of the chapter on rabies in that book. He is a past president of the International Society of Travel Medicine, and the current chairman of The Medicine and Compassion Projectâ.

He pioneered travel medicine research on travelers’ diarrhea, typhoid fever, hepatitis, altitude illness, trekking deaths, and rabies. He also helped discover the diarrhea causing protozoal pathogen Cyclospora.

 Dr. Shlim is the co-author, with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, of Medicine and Compassion, a book that offers advice from a Tibetan Buddhist lama on methods of training in compassion for health care professionals. His new memoir, A Gentle Rain of Compassion, was published in September 2022.

Robert Steffen, Professor Emeritus at the University of Zurich was the Head of the Division of Communicable Diseases in the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute and Director of a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Traveller's Health. He also is Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.

In the 1970’s he started systematic research in morbidity and mortality of illnesses and accidents related to international travel. On the basis of such epidemiological evidence, he concluded on preventive strategies for individual travellers and on measures to be taken out of public health interest. Meanwhile he has (co-)authored over 400 publications, among them many relating to vaccination. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Travel Medicine, of the International Journal of Public Health and Section Editor for Clinical Infectious Diseases. In the 27 years of his tenure at the Zurich University Center for Travel Medicine he supervised over 1 million vaccinations as in that travel clinic there were almost 20,000 consultations per year. Since his retirement from Zurich University his research focus is on adult immunization; he is an advisor of the Adult Immunization Board (AIB).

Robert Steffen presided the Swiss Federal Commission for Influenza; he was Vice-President both of the Federal Commission on Vaccination and of the Swiss Bioterrorism Committee. The WHO often has invited him to advisory boards, such as during the revision of the International Health Regulations (IHR) and on other topics, such as malaria, vaccine preventable diseases, chemical and biological warfare, disinsection of conveyances, or epidemiological preparedness at airports. Repeatedly he served as Chair of the IHR Ebola Emergency Committee until 2020.

Robert Steffen, Professor Emeritus at the University of Zurich was the Head of the Division of Communicable Diseases in the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute and Director of a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Traveller's Health. He also is Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.

In the 1970’s he started systematic research in morbidity and mortality of illnesses and accidents related to international travel. On the basis of such epidemiological evidence, he concluded on preventive strategies for individual travellers and on measures to be taken out of public health interest. Meanwhile he has (co-)authored over 400 publications, among them many relating to vaccination. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Travel Medicine, of the International Journal of Public Health and Section Editor for Clinical Infectious Diseases. In the 27 years of his tenure at the Zurich University Center for Travel Medicine he supervised over 1 million vaccinations as in that travel clinic there were almost 20,000 consultations per year. Since his retirement from Zurich University his research focus is on adult immunization; he is an advisor of the Adult Immunization Board (AIB).

Robert Steffen presided the Swiss Federal Commission for Influenza; he was Vice-President both of the Federal Commission on Vaccination and of the Swiss Bioterrorism Committee. The WHO often has invited him to advisory boards, such as during the revision of the International Health Regulations (IHR) and on other topics, such as malaria, vaccine preventable diseases, chemical and biological warfare, disinsection of conveyances, or epidemiological preparedness at airports. Repeatedly he served as Chair of the IHR Ebola Emergency Committee until 2020.

I am a seasoned professional specializing in Medical Affairs within the pharmaceutical industry. My experience has taken me from local to global stages, encompassing a wide array of therapeutic segments, including Vaccines, RX, OTX, OTC, and Biologicals.
I have a proven track record of orchestrating successful product development, product launch, robust scientific engagement, and the creation of effective go-to-market strategies.
My expertise extends to collaborating with healthcare professionals, investigators, public health authorities, patient advocacy groups and regulatory agencies, resulting in impactful scientific engagement and medical/patient education programs that address critical unmet medical needs. Throughout my career, I have excelled in clinical research, real-world evidence generation, and team leadership, fostering a culture of excellence among my colleagues.

Key Achievements in Medical Affairs:
• Led the successful launch of SHINGRIX® (herpes zoster recombinant, adjuvanted vaccine)in Spain, Portugal, and Israel, securing vaccine funding in national programs and driving significant revenue growth.
• Cultivated collaborative relationships and partnerships with medical opinion leaders, investigators, and public health authorities.
• Managed relationships and negotiations with health and regulatory authorities across key agencies and institutions.
• Pioneered innovative pharmaco-vigilance and customer information systems, setting new industry standards.
• Formed influential opinion leader boards, elevating product perception and driving exceptional performance in unexplored areas.
• Nurtured high-performance teams, driving professional growth and creating a culture of excellence.
• Oversaw the implementation of Phase III and IV studies, aligning clinical research with Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR).

My commitment to the field of Medical Affairs is unwavering, and I am dedicated to driving growth and innovation within this realm.

Ralph Huits is a Dutch internist and adult infectious disease physician at the Department of Infectious Tropical diseases and Microbiology of the Sacro Cuore Don Calabria hospital in Negrar, Verona, in Italy. He is also affiliated with the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Antwerp, Belgium. Since September 2021, Ralph is a Co-Principal Investigator (Research lead) of GeoSentinel, the emerging infectious diseases network of the International Society of Travel Medicine and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ralph has extensive experience working as a consultant in clinical tropical medicine and traveler’s health in different settings, such as the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium and in various low- and middle-income countries (Thailand, Zimbabwe, Aruba, Haiti). Ralph’s research focuses on the epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management of infectious diseases in travelers and endemic populations. He obtained a PhD in biomedical sciences from the KU Leuven in 2019 (thesis title ‘Challenges in diagnosis and management of chikungunya and Zika virus infections’). He is an editorial board member of the Journal of Travel Medicine, and he serves as a regular reviewer for the major journals in infectious diseases.

Lin H. Chen, MD, FACP, FASTMH, FISTM, is Past President of the International Society of Travel Medicine (2019-2021). She is Director of the Travel Medicine Center at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Chen is a graduate of Harvard University and Jefferson Medical College and trained at New England Deaconess Hospital (Internal Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) and Yale-New Haven Hospital (Infectious Diseases). She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (ACP), the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), and International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM).

She has directed the ISTM Travel Medicine Review and Update Course, served on the Research Committee and the Executive Board as a Counsellor. She served on the ASTMH Certificate Examination Committee, Education Committee, Nomination Committee, and also on Work Groups of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Her editorial roles include the Journal of Travel Medicine, Current Infectious Disease Reports, Travel Medicine and Infectious Diseases, and Infectious Diseases: A Geographic Guide. She has authored chapters in CDC’s Health Information for International Travel (Yellow Book) for over a decade. She served on past scientific program committees of International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases and ISTM Conferences. She is a site director for the GeoSentinel Surveillance Network and Global Travel Epidemiology Network. Her clinical research focuses on travelers’ health, including vector-borne diseases, immunizations, emerging infections, and cross-border healthcare.

Christoph Hatz, Professor emeritus for Tropical and Travel Medicine at Basel and Zurich Universities. Consultant for Travel Medicine and Schistosomiasis at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland.

Dr. Pandey was born in Nepal and obtained her medical degree in New Delhi, India. She did her residency training in Internal Medicine in Boston, USA and returned to Nepal after working for 10
years in the Boston area.

In Nepal, she joined the CIWEC Clinic and Travel Medicine Center, the oldest Travel Medicine Center in a developing country that had a rich tradition of research in travel associated illnesses under the leadership of Dr David R. Shlim. The CIWEC Clinic evolved into a hospital and Dr Pandey became the medical director of CIWEC hospital in 1998.

She was elected a counselor of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM) in 2003 and served as the President of the ISTM from 2005-2007. She is the founding President of Nepal Society of Travel Medicine. She opened the first Travel Medicine Center in Pokhara, Nepal in 2014. She served one season at the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA) aid-post as a volunteer doctor at Pheriche near Everest base camp and currently serves on the medical advisory board of the HRA.

CIWEC Hospital has participated in the global surveillance network called GeoSentinel since 1998 and Dr. Pandey has been the site director or co-site director for this project. Her publications include Traveler's Diarrhea - etiology and resistance, Altitude Illness, Pulmonary Embolism at high altitude, a novel treatment for Frostbite, in addition to other Travel Medicine related topics. 

Christina Coyle, M.D., M.S. is board certified in Infectious Disease and has been practicing for over twenty years. She is the director of the Infectious Disease Service at Jacobi Medical Center and oversees an active Tropical Medicine Clinic there in the Bronx, NY. She is a Professor of Medicine and Pathology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and has extensive experience with tropical medicine, travel medicine, parasitology, and immigrant health. She is widely recognized as an expert on larval tapeworms, neurocysticercosis, and echinococcus, serving on both national and international committees for these pathogens. She currently serves as an Editor for Clinical Infectious Disease (CID).

Committed to comprehensive high-quality care for travellers, Dr. Susan Kuhn is the founder and Medical Director of  Odyssey, which opened its doors in 2000. Trained in pediatrics, infectious diseases, as well as travel and tropical medicine, Dr. Kuhn has a pediatric infectious disease practice at Alberta Children’s Hospital, and sees adults in consultation for tropical infections at Odyssey. Dr. Kuhn is passionate about the health of travellers, immigrants and refugees of all ages.

Dr. Kuhn takes every opportunity to expand her horizons abroad through work, education, and leisure. It may be seeing the jungles of Costa Rica on her knees with a 3 year old; watching a breathtaking sunrise on the summit of Kilimanjaro; teaching residents in the hospitals of Vientiane; learning from local doctors in a malaria research station in Thailand; picking up some WWI history from her son in the Somme; or encountering sea snakes in the Mergui Archipelago of Myanmar. She lives vicariously through her patients to learn as much as she can about the places she hasn’t yet visited.

Stefan Hagmann is Professor of Pediatrics at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Health, and a pediatric infectious diseases attending physician at the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center of New York where he is the medical director of the Antibiotic Stewardship Program, and the site director for the Northwell GeoSentinel and Global TravEpinet surveillance sites. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the International Society of Travel Medicine.

Dr. Hagmann earned his MD from the University of Hamburg, Germany and his MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. After clinical training in Germany and the United States he settled in New York City. His clinical and research focus has been primarily on pediatric HIV care, and chronic viral hepatitis. Working with a very mobile immigrant population in the Bronx, he developed a special interest in travel- and migration related infectious diseases.

His current work involves community outreach, and the development of an improved access to travel health care in urban under-served immigrant communities. As a pediatrician and the current chair of the International Society of Travel Medicine Pediatric Interest Group, he is dedicated to improve the child traveler-related educational portfolio for community health practitioners, and to help grow the evidence base for pediatric travel medicine recommendations

A/Prof Mike Starr. Prof Starr is a General Pediatrician, Infectious Diseases Physician and Consultant in   Emergency Medicine at The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne (RCH). He's head of the RCH Travel Clinic. He's one of the authors of the Manual of Travel Medicine. He's a Fellow of the ISTM and a past Chair of the ISTM Pediatrics Interest Group.

Dr. Mackell completed her undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania. She went south to the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, for medical school, then west to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), for pediatric training.

Dr. Mackell has traveled extensively and has worked as a pediatrician in numerous Latin American and Asian countries. She studied tropical medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC, and at Cayetano Heredia Institute of Tropical Medicine in Lima, Peru, and earned a certificate in tropical medicine and clinical travelers’ health. She practiced pediatrics and travel medicine in northern California and then northern Arizona for over 25 years.

She is an active member and Fellow of the International Society of Travel Medicine, director of the virtual Travel Medicine Review and Update course, a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of the ASTM&H.

 Dr. Mackell has authored several text chapters and articles on various topics in pediatric travel medicine. In addition, she has lectured extensively on travel medicine and international adoption. In 2022, she started a new chapter, retiring from general pediatric practice, and is now teaching travel medicine and public health and traveling frequently with surgical groups internationally to provide cleft lip and palate care.

Nancy Piper Jenks, MS, CFNP, MFTM RCPS (Glasg), FAANP, is the Director of Research Initiatives and migrant/travel medicine at Sun River Health in Peekskill, NY, an FQHC, with 51 sites in Hudson Valley, NYC and Long Island. She served as deputy PI of the NIH All of Us precision medicine research program at Sun River.  Her international work includes serving as a Peace Corps volunteer for three years in Senegal, West Africa, working at CIWEC Clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal for two years and spending 2 years as a research fellow at the Center of Evaluation of Vaccination: WHO Center for the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis in Antwerp, Belgium. She has published peer-reviewed medical literature on topics that include Hepatitis E in travelers, enteric fever, Lyme disease, strongyloidiasis, Hyper infection syndrome with COVID and MRSA in migrant populations.  She is a board member of the Clinical Directors Network, a national practice-based research network focusing on translational science research to improve care of the underserved.  Ms Piper Jenks has co-authored several chapters in medical textbooks in areas including economics of travel medicine, migrant medicine and hepatitis.  She delivers primary health care to patients in her community which includes a large population of immigrants and migrants mainly from Central and South America.  Her research interests include chronic and infectious diseases among migrant populations, and she has been the site director for the GeoSentinel network, a global sentinel network of travelers and immigrants since 2001. Her most recent initiative is screening prenatal patients for Chagas disease.  Ms. Piper Jenks is a former board member of the International Society of Travel Medicine and regularly presents at ISTM conferences. 

Prof. Dr. Patricia Schlagenhauf, PhD, FISTM, FFTM, RCPSS (Glasg)

Patricia Schlagenhauf-Lawlor is a Professor (Travel Medicine), Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Travellers’ Health in Zürich and  Scientific Group Leader at the University of Zürich, Switzerland.

She is active in research and leads a team working on a portfolio of grant-driven projects on malaria, infection epidemiology and surveillance, arthropod-borne infections, emerging infections, gender issues in pharmacology and military medicine. Current major projects include ITIT (Illness Tracking in Travellers) an m-Health study using a novel app to allow bottom-up reporting of infections in travellers and ICARUS, a one health project examining the impact of climate change on vectors and arboviral infections. She is the Zürich GeoSentinel Site Director and in 2023 was elected Director of  EuroTravNet. She has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed papers and three books, “Travellers’ Malaria” (Eds 1, 2), “PDQ Handbook of Travellers’ Malaria” and “Infectious Disease – a geographic guide” (Eds 1,2,3)

Patricia has held several editor roles including European Senior Editor for “The Lancet”, Editor-at-Large Bulletin WHO and Editor-in-Chief positions at Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease and since 2022 at New Microbes New Infections. After work, she is a passionate golfer.

Dr. Maria D Mileno completed training in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts New England Medical Center and has a long-standing interest in Travel and Tropical Medicine, and in infections in the immunocompromised host. Dr. Mileno is the former longtime director of the Brown Medicine Travel Clinic and continues to play an instrumental role due to her passion for Travel Medicine, an area in which she is considered a thought leader. A Board-certified Internist and Infectious Disease specialist, she regularly sees travelers, inpatients and outpatients as an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brown University.

Dr. Mileno is passionate about teaching. She has created, directed, and lectured on Travel and Tropical Medicine topics to undergraduate students, postgraduate health professionals and Physician Assistants and she has been honored with numerous teaching awards throughout her career. She has an extensive track record of publishing about topics in Travel and Tropical Medicine and presenting at many national and international meetings. She is a long-standing, active member of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, IDSA and the International Society of Travel medicine, and she participates in the GeoSentinel and US Chagas networks.

Dr. Mileno is also an accomplished pianist, and she loves Chopin!!

Dr. Obinna Nnedu specializes in infectious disease at Ochsner Health. He received his doctor of medicine from the University of Alabama-Birmingham School of Medicine in 2004. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Tulane University Hospitals in New Orleans followed by an infectious disease fellowship at the University of Washington Hospitals in Seattle. Prior to coming to Ochsner, he worked at Tulane Medical Center in the Infectious Diseases Department specializing in tropical medicine. Dr. Nnedu is board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and ABIM's Infectious Diseases. He is also certified in travel medicine through the International Society of Travel Medicine and is also certified in tropical medicine through the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Dr Sarah McGuinness, MBBS MPHTM PhD, is an infectious diseases physician based in Melbourne, Australia with a special interest in travel medicine. She leads the Travel Medicine service at The Alfred Hospital and is a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University. Sarah is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Travel Medicine and chairs the Digital Communications Committee of the International Society of Travel Medicine. She’s also a member of the ISTM Travel Unravelled podcast team. Her research focuses on reducing preventable infections in travellers and other at-risk populations.

Associate Professor Luis Furuya Kanamori MBBS, MEpi, MPH, PhD, FACTM is a clinical epidemiologist and research synthesis methodologist.

 A/Prof Furuya Kanamori leads the Travel Medicine and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Theme, and the Clinician-Epidemiologist Hub at University of Queensland HERA program on Operational Research and Decision Support for Infectious Diseases. He is Director of Research of the Clinical Research & Evidence Synthesis at the Travel Medicine Alliance in Australia.

 A/Prof Furuya Kanamori’s applied research on travel medicine and vaccine preventable diseases has influenced key changes in clinical and public health guidelines (e.g., WHO, ATAGI, Australian Immunisation Handbook, UptoDate).

 In addition to his academic roles, A/Prof Furuya Kanamori is editorial board member for J Travel Med and Clin Infect Dis, and chairs the Research and Awards Committee of the International Society of Travel Medicine.

Professor of Pediatrics, Boston University School of Medicine

 Dr. Elizabeth Barnett is Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and Chief of the Section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Boston Medical Center. Her clinical and research interests include travel medicine and parasitic infections, vaccines and vaccine safety, immigrant and refugee medicine, and general pediatric infectious diseases. She is an Associate Editor of the American Academy of Pediatrics Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases (Red Book), a Medical Editor of Health Information for International Travel (Yellow Book), and, with Patricia Walker, the editor of the textbook Immigrant Medicine. She is a GeoSentinel site director.

Miguel M. Cabada MD MSc FASTMH is a physician scientist expert in tropical and travel medicine. He is an Associate Professor at the Division of Infectious Diseases of University of Texas Medical Branch. He went to medical school in Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima – Peru and then pursued training as a post-doc in tropical medicine research at the Alexander von Humboldt Tropical Medicine Institute in UPCH working in the jungle and highlands of Peru for 5 years. He completed his internal medicine residency in Jackson Memorial Hospital-University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and infectious diseases fellowship at University of Texas Medical Branch. He holds a master’s degree in clinical research from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences from University of Texas Medical Branch

Dr. Cabada splits his time between Galveston where he does clinical work on general infectious diseases and Cusco-Peru where he does community-based studies and translational research. Dr. Cabada is the founding Director of the UPCH-UTMB Collaborative Research Center in Cusco – Peru based at the Tropical Medicine Institute of UPCH. This facility is a training site in tropical medicine and global health research for medical students and fellows. Dr. Cabada is heavily involved in mentoring trainees at different levels of their careers. He heads a research program on epidemiological and translational aspects of neglected tropical diseases, travel medicine, and emerging viral infections. His focus is on helminths affecting the local population with an emphasis on the epidemiology, impact, novel diagnostics, treatment responses, and control of fascioliasis. He has led multidisciplinary research teams in the highlands and jungle of Peru and has a network of collaborators around the country to study neglected tropical diseases. Dr. Cabada is involved in the Latin American Society of Travel Medicine, International Society of Travel Medicine, and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene where he participates in scientific committees, training activities, and leadership positions. He has also served as a consultant for the Peruvian Government on Fasciola hepatica treatment and control.

Anu Kantele is Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland, and Senior Medical Officer at Helsinki University Hospital (HUH). She acts as head of Aava Travel Clinic in Helsinki, and founder and director of the Meilahti Vaccine Research Center, MeVac at HUH. Currently, she serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), holding the position of Professional Affairs Officer. She has received her MD and MD PhD as well as her specialist degrees in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases from the Helsinki University. Her research interests include antimicrobial resistance (AMR), travellers’ diarrhoea, returning travellers, and vaccinations. Kantele has authored over 200 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed medical journals, many of them in the field of travel medicine.  She heads a research group with 10 PhD students and three postdocs and acts as principal investigator in FIMAR, a Finnish Academy Center of Excellence for AMR research. 

Dr. Shlim is the author of over fifty-five original research papers and has written over twenty chapters in textbooks on travel medicine. He is an editor of the CDC’s Health Information for International Travel, and a co-author of the chapter on rabies in that book. He is a past president of the International Society of Travel Medicine, and the current chairman of The Medicine and Compassion Projectâ.

He pioneered travel medicine research on travelers’ diarrhea, typhoid fever, hepatitis, altitude illness, trekking deaths, and rabies. He also helped discover the diarrhea causing protozoal pathogen Cyclospora.

 Dr. Shlim is the co-author, with Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, of Medicine and Compassion, a book that offers advice from a Tibetan Buddhist lama on methods of training in compassion for health care professionals. His new memoir, A Gentle Rain of Compassion, was published in September 2022.

Bradley A. Connor, M.D. is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College and Attending Physician at the New York Presbyterian Hospital.  He is the founder and Medical Director of the New York Center for Travel and Tropical Medicine.

He is the author of over 200 peer reviewed medical publications and serves on the editorial boards or as a reviewer for over 25 medical journals. He co-chaired the 2016 Travelers’ Diarrhea Consensus Conference and authored the sections on Travelers’ Diarrhea and Persistent Diarrhea in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health Information for International Travel “Yellow Book” and CDC website. He is co-editor of the textbook Travel Medicine, now in its 4th edition.

A founding member and Past President of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM), Dr Connor was one of the original seven sites of GeoSentinel, the global emerging infectious disease surveillance and research network of the CDC and ISTM and founded the GeoSentinel Foundation, a not-for-profit organization devoted to the support of GeoSentinel and global infectious disease research.

Dr. Connor has served as a consultant to the White House Medical Unit (WHMU) since 1999 and is an advisor in Travel Medicine for the U.S. Olympic Swim Team.

Dr. Connor is the Founder and President of The Connor Group, an international medical care coordination service that connects patients to leading physicians worldwide, arranging and expediting elite medical care. He has served as a physician to high-profile individuals, including a former U.S. President, touring bands such as Harry Styles, Phil Collins and Genesis, Bruce Springsteen, and for over 20 years has served as the Medical Director for the Rolling Stones.

 Dr. Connor received his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. He completed both his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center Hospitals in San Antonio completed a gastroenterology fellowship at the New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical College and Rockefeller University.

He is a Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA-F), Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America (FIDSA) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow) FFTM, FRCPS.

Dr. Garry received his B.S in Life Sciences with a minor in Chemistry from Indiana State University in 1978. He then carried out doctoral studies in Microbiology at the University of Texas at Austin under the direction of Dr. Marilynn R.F. Waite and received his Ph.D. in 1978. His dissertation was entitled: "Intracellular sodium and potassium and the regulation of gene expression in virus-infected and virus-transformed chick cells." He carried out postdoctoral research in virology at UT Austin under the mentorship of Dr. Henry R. Bose, Jr. In 1983 Dr. Garry was appointed Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1985 he was Visiting Professor of Pathology at the University of Southern California working with Dr. Suraiya Rasheed. Dr. Garry spent 1991 as a Visiting Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Hamburg working with Dr. Gebhard Koch. Since 1993 he has been Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Tulane Medical School. Dr. Garry has published over 100 papers in the area of retrovirology. Research in the Garry Laboratory focuses on a number of aspects of retroviral pathogenesis. Investigations have found that HIV induces a number of defects in plasma membrane ion transport, which could account for the loss of CD4+ T-cells in AIDS patients. Another research interest is the molecular characterization of an isolate of HIV from a patient who died of AIDS in 1969. This is the earliest confirmed case of AIDS in the United States. In addition, the lab has discovered a retrovirus named human intracisternal A-type retroviral particle (HIAP), which appears to be involved in systemic autoimmune diseases and idiopathic CD4 T-lymphocytopenia. More recently, the lab obtained evidence for the existence of a human endogenous retrovirus named human mammary tumor virus (HMTV), which is a close homolog of a virus which causes breast cancer in mice.

Dr. Garry is currently managing a consortium of scientists who are developing countermeasures, including diagnostics, immunotherapeutics and vaccines, against Lassa virus, Ebola and Marburg viruses, and other high consequence pathogens. Our team has produced Lassa fever and Ebola point-of-care and confirmatory diagnostics based on recombinant proteins. A combination of human monoclonal antibodies has been shown to rescue 100% of monkeys even when treatment is initiated at an advanced stage of disease. Studies on a combination Lassa fever and Ebola vaccine for use in West Africa have been initiated. Productive collaborations have been exploited to deepen understanding of the natural history of viral hemorrhagic fevers while providing training for West African scientists and further developing research and clinical trial infrastructure in Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

Davidson Hamer, MD is a Professor of Global Health and Medicine at the Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine, the co-lead of the climate change and emerging infectious diseases research core at the BU Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases, and an attending physician in infectious diseases and Director of the Travel Clinic at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Hamer is a board-certified infectious disease specialist and medical epidemiologist with particular interests in maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition (MNCH&N) in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), emerging arboviral diseases, tropical medicine, travel medicine, infection control, and antimicrobial resistance.

Dr. Hamer has been involved in travel medicine for thirty years and from 2014 to 2021, Dr. Hamer served as the principal investigator and, since September 2021, as the Surveillance Lead, of GeoSentinel, a global surveillance network of 70 sites in 30 countries that uses returning travelers, immigrants, and refugees as sentinels of disease emergence and transmission patterns throughout the world. At Boston Medical Center, he is the PI for several studies of enhanced screening, diagnosis, and management of migrants with Chagas disease and he is part of two national US Chagas disease consortia.

Dr. Hamer is currently the Scientific Program Chair for the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Section Editor for the Journal of Travel Medicine (sentinel surveillance in travelers) and the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (global health and Chagas disease). He also serves as the Secretary-Treasurer for the GeoSentinel Foundation. He has nearly 500 publications that cover a range of topics within the fields of global health (MNCH&N), travel medicine, COVID-19, and the epidemiology of disease in returning travelers.

Senior research manager

Elizabeth is a senior research manager in global health in the policy and insights team at Economist Impact. Prior to this, she was the managing editor and global healthcare editorial lead at Economist Intelligence Unit’s Thought Leadership division. She is the lead on global health projects that help build effective action to develop a sustainable health economy, with patients at the centre. She has led major research projects on universal healthcare, climate change and its impact on lung health, health literacy, digital health, cancer care, self-care, sin taxes, health financing and patient-centred care.  She is also the lead on The Economist Group’s World Cancer Initiative which has led to the development of new thinking in cancer care and is a key moderator at the Economist Impact Events’ such as the World Cancer Series, Future of Healthcare and Sustainability Summit. She is a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, a fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health, and has two degrees: a bachelor of pharmacy degree from Monash University (Australia) and a Master of Science in International Health Policy from the London School of Economics (LSE). She has been a journalist and editor for more than 15 years, covering healthcare policy, R&D and science for medical journals and UK newspapers, including the British Medical Journal and the Guardian. Before joining The Economist Group, she was the deputy news editor at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, where she ran the news and analysis desk and was often called to comment about healthcare issues on BBC radio. She also managed an international team of journalists when she was the world editor of Informa’s Scrip Intelligence, a global publication on pharmaceutical and healthcare policy, where she won the Informa Journalist of Year award. Before moving into journalism, Elizabeth worked as a pharmacist in community, hospital and health authority settings, and she maintains her pharmacist registration.

Current Appointments: Professor of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology atthe University of Texas – Houston School of Public Health, the Mary W. KelseyChair in the Medical Sciences at the University of Texas McGovern MedicalSchool, Clinical Professor, Baylor College of Medicine, Adjunct Professor andSenior Distinguished Lecturer at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Professor, theGraduate School of Biomedical Sciences at University of Texas and MD AndersonCancer Hospital.

Dr. DuPont received a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MD from EmoryUniversity School of Medicine and completed internal medicine training at theUniversity of Minnesota and infectious diseases fellowship at the University ofMaryland. He served as an EIS Officer at the Centers for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC). He received an honorary doctorate from the University ofZurich (Switzerland) and an honorary Doctor of Science from Ohio WesleyanUniversity.

Dr. DuPont served as President of the Infectious Diseases Society ofAmerica, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, the American Clinicaland Climatological Association and was the first President of the InternationalSociety of Travel Medicine. He served on the Board of Governors for theAmerican College of Physicians (ACP) and served as ACP Governor for southTexas.

He served on the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committeeof the FDA and the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Center forInfectious Diseases at the CDC. He is a member of the American Society forClinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and theAmerican Epidemiological Society.

Honors received include: Distinguished Achievement Citation from OhioWesleyan University; the Distinguished Medical Achievement Award from EmoryUniversity School of Medicine; the Maxwell Finland Award for ScientificAchievement from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases; Mastership inthe American College of Physicians; the Alexander Fleming Award for LifetimeAchievement in Infectious Diseases from the Infectious Diseases Society ofAmerica; the President’s Scholar Award for Research from the University ofTexas Health Science Center, and the University title “President’s Scholar”;the Founder’s Award from the International Society of Travel Medicine; and fromthe University of Texas System, he received the Regents’ Outstanding TeachingAward and was given the system title of “Distinguished Teaching Professor”. Hehas authored or co-authored 774 publications (413 original science articles and361 review articles or book chapters) and written or edited 19 books.

Dr. DuPont has supervised clinical or laboratory studies of travelers’diarrhea since 1975 working in Mexico, Guatemala, Thailand, Kenya, and Egypt.Since 2013, Dr. DuPont and his colleague Zhi-Dong Jiang, MD, DrPH haveestablished a CLIA-certified Microbiome Laboratory and a fecal microbiotatransplantation product that is given orally or by enema to reverse dysbiosisdisease states. Dr. Jiang and his laboratory studies of travelers with diarrheahave focused on pathogens, antimicrobial resistance and microbiome diversity.

Robert Steffen, Professor Emeritus at the University of Zurich was the Head of the Division of Communicable Diseases in the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute and Director of a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Traveller's Health. He also is Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.

In the 1970’s he started systematic research in morbidity and mortality of illnesses and accidents related to international travel. On the basis of such epidemiological evidence, he concluded on preventive strategies for individual travellers and on measures to be taken out of public health interest. Meanwhile he has (co-)authored over 400 publications, among them many relating to vaccination. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Travel Medicine, of the International Journal of Public Health and Section Editor for Clinical Infectious Diseases. In the 27 years of his tenure at the Zurich University Center for Travel Medicine he supervised over 1 million vaccinations as in that travel clinic there were almost 20,000 consultations per year. Since his retirement from Zurich University his research focus is on adult immunization; he is an advisor of the Adult Immunization Board (AIB).

Robert Steffen presided the Swiss Federal Commission for Influenza; he was Vice-President both of the Federal Commission on Vaccination and of the Swiss Bioterrorism Committee. The WHO often has invited him to advisory boards, such as during the revision of the International Health Regulations (IHR) and on other topics, such as malaria, vaccine preventable diseases, chemical and biological warfare, disinsection of conveyances, or epidemiological preparedness at airports. Repeatedly he served as Chair of the IHR Ebola Emergency Committee until 2020.

Professor G. Dennis Shanks MD, MPH

Prof Dennis Shanks has been the Director of the Australian Defence Force Malaria and Infectious Disease Institute (ADF MIDI) in Brisbane for the last 15 years and is an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland, School of Public Health as well as James Cook University. He directs militarily relevant medical research on infectious diseases capable of stopping tropical operations such as malaria, dengue and influenza. For the previous 20 years Professor (then Colonel) Shanks had been a US Army medical officer who spent the majority of his military career conducting field trials of new antimalarial drugs in the tropics.  His assignments included service at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the overseas laboratories of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research at the Armed Forces Research Institute Medical Sciences in Thailand and the US Army Medical Research Unit in Kenya, as well as the Australian Army Malaria Research Unit in Ingleburn, Australia (a fore-runner of ADF MIDI). Concerned mostly with malaria prevention studies, Prof Shanks has conducted field studies in various rural populations including gold miners in New Guinea, Thai border militia on the Cambodia border, displaced persons in camps along the Thai-Burmese border, tea estate workers of the Kenyan Rift Valley and Kenyan villagers near Lake Victoria.  He performed one of the pivotal efficacy trials for atovaquone proguanil which lead to its licensure as a chemo-prophylactic combination and has tested most antimalarial drugs in use today. Prof Shanks did the first field trial of tafenoquine, a new antimalarial drug which was registered in Australia and the USA in 2018 for the prevention and treatment of malaria. Most recently he has been using historical data to determine the causes of malaria relapses and mortality during the 1918 influenza pandemic. He has published over 220 research papers on malaria and other infectious diseases. Prof Shanks serves as the medical monitor for several antimalarial clinical trials and is on several advisory committees. His awards include the US Army Legion of Merit and the Donald MacKay Medal from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Recent publications:

Shanks GD and White N. The activation of vivax malaria hypnozoites by infectious diseases.  Lancet Infect Dis 2013: 13: 900-06

Shanks GD. How the Great War changed global attitudes to war and infectious diseases.  Lancet; 2014; 384:1699-1707

Shanks GD.  Malaria mortality in the Australian Defence Force during the 20^th century.  Am J Trop Med Hyg 2017; 97(2):544-547

Shanks GD, Mohrle JJ. Treating malaria; new drugs for a new era.  Lancet Infectious Diseases 2017; 17:1223-1224

Shanks GD, Wilson N, Kippen R, Brundage JF. The unusually diverse mortality patterns in the Pacific Region during the 1918-1921 influenza pandemic: reflections at the pandemic’s centenary. Lancet Infect Dis 2018; on line 9 May 18 18: S1473-3099

Shanks GD. Tolerance May Be More Accurate Than Immunity When Describing Chronic Malaria Infections. Am J Trop Med Hyg 2019; 100(3):497-500.

Shanks GD. Malaria-Associated Mortality in Australian and British Prisoners of War on the Thai-Burma Railway 1943-1944 Am J Trop Med Hyg 2019; 100(4):846-850.

Shanks GD. Australian Defence Force’s role in Regional Health Security: missions defined by infectious diseases.  J Mil Vet Hlth 2020; 28: 43-49.

Zottig VE, Shanks GD. Historical perspective: the evolution of post-exposure prophylaxis for vivax malaria since the Korean War. MSMR. 2021 Feb; 28(2):8-10

Ash E, Zahra M, Shanks GD, Nasveld P. Influenza outbreak during Exercise Talisman Sabre, Queensland, Australia, July 2019. MSMR 2021 Mar; 28(3):9-12

Susana Lloveras, MD.CTH Specialist in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases Director, Geosentinel Site Buenos Aires Head of the Medical Zoonosis Unit, Hospital Muñiz, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Founder and Director of Clinica de Viajeros. Argentina
I am a physician specializing in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, with over 30 years of clinical experience in tropical and endemic diseases, travel medicine, and neglected diseases. Certified in Travel Health (CTH), my work focuses on improving the diagnosis, treatment, and access to care for diseases affecting local populations, migrants, and travelers. I integrate clinical practice, research, and public health to address global challenges such as Chagas disease and other neglected tropical diseases.

As Head of the Zoonoses Medical Unit at the Muñiz Hospital, Buenos Aires, I direct clinical and research efforts on zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. I am the Director of Geosentinel Buenos Aires Site, contributing to global surveillance of travel-related diseases. Additionally, I serve as a technical advisor to the Ministry of Health of Argentina, supporting public health strategies for the control of infectious diseases.

I am a member of the Board of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases (SADI) and an active participant in the Latin American Alliance for Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (ALEIMC). I am a founding member and former president of the Latin American Society of Travel Medicine (SLAMVI), where I worked to promote travel medicine throughout the region.

In the academic field, I enjoy teaching medical students, residents and fellows and I teach at the University of Buenos Aires and Universidad Austral. Also, I direct the SLAMVI Travel Medicine Training Program. My work aims to improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations and strengthen health systems.

Counsellor, ISTM Executive Board. Codirector GeoSentinel Madrid site (MAD)

Graduated from St Bartholomew´s and the Royal London School of Medicine in London in 1997, and obtained an intercalated degree (BMedSci) in Medical Science in 1996. Following house officer and senior house officer training in London and obtaining the MRCP (UK), completed specialist training in Internal Medicine and a Master´s degree in Tropical Medicine and International Health in Madrid, Spain. Since 2007 has worked as a clinician at the National Referral Unit for Tropical Diseases, Infectious Diseases Department, Ramón y Cajal University Hospital in Madrid, with special research interests focusing on emerging and neglected infections and travel and migrant health.

Prof. Eli Schwartz, MD,,  DTMH, FISTM, FASTM 

• Full Professor (clinical) at Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University.
• The Founder and past Director of the Institute of Geographic Medicine & Tropical Diseases at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
• The President of the Israeli society of Parasitology, & Tropical   diseases.
• The past- President of the Asia-Pacific Travel health (APTH) society.

• Head of the Molecular Lab. for Tropical Diseases at Sheba Medical Ctr.

 Eli Schwartz is deeply involved in Tropical and Travel Medicine since 1987. He gained his field experience while working for several years in Asia and Africa. Ei Schwartz's main expertise is clinical tropical medicine. He published several books and more than 400 articles and chapters in the medical literature on travel and tropical diseases.

The list of publications can be seen in my Google Scholar site: http://scholar.google.co.il/ci...

 His textbook “Tropical Diseases in Travelers” (Wiley-Blackwell) was published in 2009.

His book (co-authored with Orna Schatz-Oppenheimer) "A Hidden Traveler"; Narrative of travelers with Tropical Diseases was published 2009 (Ramot, Tel-Aviv University press)

Dr. Emmanuel Taban – From Refugee to Renowned Pulmonologist

Born in a small village in South Sudan, Dr. Emmanuel Taban endured a childhood marked by unimaginable hardship. Raised by a single mother alongside four siblings, he was arrested at 14 by the military, falsely accused of being a rebel spy, and suffered incarceration and torture. After fleeing to Eritrea and facing further imprisonment, he embarked on an epic 3,000km journey to Nairobi, Kenya — and, after being turned away by family, travelled another 3,000km alone to South Africa, inspired simply by a label on a soda can.

 Despite these challenges, he defied the odds. In 2004, Dr. Taban graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery. He completed his Internal Medicine training at the University of Pretoria in 2011 and later qualified as a Pulmonologist in 2018. He earned recognition as a European Respiratory Society diplomat in 2019 and underwent advanced bronchoscopic training in the Netherlands.

 During the COVID-19 pandemic, working at Mediclinic Midstream in Pretoria, Dr. Taban pioneered a groundbreaking mucus extraction technique that saved countless lives. His innovative work and remarkable life story earned him recognition as one of the 100 Most Influential Africans (2020) by New African Magazine, African Person of the Year (2021) by Daily Maverick, and recipient of the prestigious Paul Harris Award by Rotary International (2024). He was also nominated for the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity and is now an Aurora Luminary.

 Dr. Taban is the author of the best-selling memoir “The Boy Who Never Gave Up”, also available in Spanish. He is a passionate advocate for education as a pathway out of poverty — a belief that fuels his ongoing mission. As patron of the Emmanuel Taban Foundation (Reg. 263-302 NPO), and ambassador for Rally to Read and the Ruth First Scholarship for Girls, he is actively working to uplift underprivileged youth through quality education and skills development.

 Today, Dr. Taban continues to serve patients at Mediclinic Midstream in Centurion, South Africa — a living embodiment of resilience, compassion, and excellence in medicine.

Dr. McCarthy is the President-elect of the International Society of Travel Medicine. She is past Chair of Canada’s Committee to Advise on Tropical Medicine and Travel, as well as the Clinical Group of the American Society of Tropical Medicine. She is a course director of the Asian Clinical Tropical Medicine Course that takes place every 2 years in Thailand and Cambodia.

 Anne spent her early career in the Canadian Military, serving 20 years. During this time she deployed to Rwanda, Haiti and Cambodia, which provided real life clinical experience with many tropical diseases and drove home the need to prevent these illnesses in military members and travelers.

 She is Professor of Medicine at University of Ottawa and Infectious Disease Physician at the Ottawa Hospital, where she is an Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Clinician. She is also a Site Director for the GeoSentinel Surveillance Network and member of CanTravNet.

 Her research includes medical education, and clinical studies related to infectious disease, travel medicine, malaria, migrant health, and global health.

Lin H. Chen, MD, FACP, FASTMH, FISTM, is Past President of the International Society of Travel Medicine (2019-2021). She is Director of the Travel Medicine Center at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Chen is a graduate of Harvard University and Jefferson Medical College and trained at New England Deaconess Hospital (Internal Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) and Yale-New Haven Hospital (Infectious Diseases). She is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (ACP), the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), and International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM).

She has directed the ISTM Travel Medicine Review and Update Course, served on the Research Committee and the Executive Board as a Counsellor. She served on the ASTMH Certificate Examination Committee, Education Committee, Nomination Committee, and also on Work Groups of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Her editorial roles include the Journal of Travel Medicine, Current Infectious Disease Reports, Travel Medicine and Infectious Diseases, and Infectious Diseases: A Geographic Guide. She has authored chapters in CDC’s Health Information for International Travel (Yellow Book) for over a decade. She served on past scientific program committees of International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases and ISTM Conferences. She is a site director for the GeoSentinel Surveillance Network and Global Travel Epidemiology Network. Her clinical research focuses on travelers’ health, including vector-borne diseases, immunizations, emerging infections, and cross-border healthcare.