Opening: A United Front for Respiratory Health at the Respiratory Virus Summit 2026

Nationality: American, British

Position: Professor of Applied Evolutionary Biology, University of Amsterdam Faculty of Medicine

Research field: Virus Evolution

ESWI member since 2019

Colin Russell is a professor at the University of Amsterdam School of Medicine. His research focuses on the evolutionary dynamics of human respiratory viruses and the immune responses that control them. He has worked extensively on the within-and-between host evolution of influenza viruses, influenza virus vaccine composition, and issues related to diagnostic and sequencing resource allocation for virus surveillance. Professor Russell regularly advises a wide variety of international organisations, including WHO, on topics ranging from surveillance to pandemic preparedness, vaccine design, and test-to-treat programs. Colin is the Chair of the ESWI since 2023 and the Chair of the EU Steering Group on Influenza Vaccination since 2024.

Dr Jarosław Waligóra is a Deputy Head of Unit in the Health Security unit in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety. In the same directorate he worked before on heath research, rare diseases, cancer, nutrition and physical activity policy. By training he is Medical Doctor, Paediatrician and specialist in Clinical Genetics. He obtained his PhD at the Medical University of Warsaw.

Edoardo Colzani is a medical doctor and epidemiologist with a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health and a PhD in breast cancer epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. He has been assistant professor of public health at the University of Milano-Bicocca until 2015. 

He joined ECDC in 2011 where he has focused on the burden of communicable diseases in Europe, assessment of EU accession countries, evidence-based approaches for scientific advice, and vaccine-preventable disease. During the pandemic he acted as strategic analyst and led the scientific advice team. Since 2022, he has led the respiratory virus team at ECDC where he is currently Head of Section. 

He is also Deputy Head of Unit Directly-transmitted and Vaccine-preventable Diseases.