Nationality: Dutch 

Position: Director of the Center of Infection Medicine and Zoonosis Research and Guest-Professor at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. 

Research fields: Emerging virus infections of humans and animals 

Professor Osterhaus is Director of the Center of Infection Medicine and Zoonosis Research at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany, and cofounder/CSO of Viroclinics-DDL BV and ViroNative BV (both spin-outs  of Erasmus MC) and CR2O. He was head of the Department of Viroscience at Erasmus MC Rotterdam until 2014. 

He has a long track record as a researcher and project leader of numerous major scientific projects. At Erasmus MC, he has run a diagnostic virology lab with more than 40 staff and a research virology lab with over 150 personnel. His research programme follows an integrated “viroscience” concept, bringing together world-leading scientists in molecular virology, immunology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, and intervention studies for human and animal virus infections.

Among his major accomplishments are the discovery of more than 70 new viruses of humans and animals (e.g. human metapneumovirus, coronaviruses, influenza viruses), elucidation of the pathogenesis of major human and animal virus infections, and development of novel intervention strategies. This has enabled health authorities like the WHO to effectively combat disease outbreaks like SARS and avian influenza. The established spin-outs are among his other societally relevant successes, allowing effective testing and refining of diagnostic tools and other intervention strategies.  

Professor Osterhaus has acted as mentor for more than 80 PhD students and holds several key patents. He is the author of more than 1300 papers in peer-reviewed journals, together cited more than 75,000 times with an H index of 120. He holds several senior editorships and has received numerous prestigious awards. He is a member of the Dutch and German National Academies of Sciences, member of the Belgium Academia of Medicine, and Commander of the Order of the Dutch Lion.

Nationality: German 

Position: Professor Virology, Heinrich-Pette-Institute, Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology, Hamburg, Germany

Research fields: Interspecies transmission and pathogenesis of influenza A viruses; High-risk groups of influenza (pregnancy, asthma, obesity); New antiviral strategies against influenza

ESWI member since 2009

Dr. Gabriel is head of the research department Viral Zoonoses – One Health at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg and professor for virology at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover. Professor Gabriel’s main research interest is to understand how avian influenza viruses cross species barriers and transmit to humans causing large epidemics and eventually pandemics. Herein, a special focus lies on influenza virus pathogenesis in high-risk groups, such as pregnant women. 

Dr. Gabriel studied Biology at the Philipps University of Marburg in Germany, and obtained her PhD in 2006. Afterwards, she moved to the United Kingdom where she held the position of a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at the University of Oxford until 2009. In 2009, Dr. Gabriel moved back to Germany where she received the prestigious Emmy-Noether Research Award funded by the German Research Foundation to lead a junior group at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg. 

From 2014-2018, she was the head of the research group influenza pathogenesis at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg and professor for virology at the University of Lübeck. Since 2018, she is the head of the research department Viral Zoonoses – One Health at the Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg and professor for virology at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover.

In 2009, Dr. Gabriel was the first winner of the ESWI Best Body of Work Award. She was elected Vice Chair of ESWI in 2014. Dr. Gabriel received many prestigious awards, among them the Robert Koch Förderpreis (2012), the Best Minds Award from the Leibniz Association (2018) and the Prize for Translational Infection Research of the German Research Center for Infection (2019). 

Nationality: Dutch 

Position: Retired General Practitioner and vocational trainer, Amersfoort, The Netherlands

Research fields: Clinical aspects of influenza vaccination

ESWI member since 2001

Dr. van Essen became a General Practitioner in 1976 and Vocational Trainer in 1981 based  in Amersfoort, the Netherlands.  He was  also Assistant Professor (since 1992) at the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center, Utrecht.  Dr Van Essen obtained his degree at the University of Groningen (M.D. and G.P.) and at Utrecht University where he received his Ph.D. 

He has been a long-standing  member of the Dutch Influenza Foundation, the Dutch Pneumococcal Foundation and different local, regional and national GP organisations. From 2000-2004, he was also the President of the Dutch College of General Practitioners. From 1996 to 2000 he was editor of Bijblijven, a Dutch CME-Journal.

Known on TV as “Dr Ted”,  he is well known in The Netherlands for his work as a TV doctor, providing his medical insights for a wide and varied national audience. He is a member of the board of several leading healthcare institutions, including the Supervisory Board of Dimence, a large mental healthcare institution in Overijssel, and chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Leidsche Rijn Julius Health Centers Foundation. He is also a member of the Supervisory Board of the National Expertise Center for Cardiovascular Genetic Research.

Nationality: Finnish

Position: Professor of Paediatrics, University of Turku, Finland

Research fields: Respiratory infections in children, vaccines, otitis media

ESWI member since 2004

Terho Heikkinen, MD, PhD, is Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Turku, Finland. He graduated from the Medical School at the University of Turku (1984), where he specialised in paediatrics and paediatric infectious diseases and completed his doctorate (1994). In 1996-1998, he worked as a post-doc researcher at the University of Texas, Galveston, USA. Subsequently, he worked as a Senior Clinical Researcher and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Turku. 

Prof. Heikkinen has been actively involved in international research collaboration and has served as the chairman or board member of several international and domestic societies in the field of infectious diseases, including as the President of the World Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (WSPID) and as board member of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID). He is a founding member of ReSViNET, a global respiratory syncytial virus research network established in 2014. In 2019, he received the Bill Marshall Award from ESPID. 

Nationality: British 

Position: Respiratory physician and mucosal immunologist, Professor of Experimental Medicine, Imperial College, London

Research fields: Lung immunology, RSV, received a lifetime achievement in work on RSV research (Chanock prize, US, in 2012)

ESWI member since 2008

Peter Openshaw is a respiratory physician and mucosal immunologist, studying how the immune system both protects against viral infection but also causes disease. He has worked on RSV and influenza since the mid-1980s, leading a large Wellcome Trust funded national collaboration: Mechanisms of Severe Acute Influenza Consortium MOSAIC (2009-12), recruiting cases of severe influenza during the influenza pandemic of 2009-2010.

He has run studies of human experimental infection of volunteers for over 12 years and is Director of the MRC-funded HIC-Vac consortium established to promote the use of human experimental infection to accelerate vaccine development for pathogens of high global impact. Furthermore, he served as President of the British Society for Immunology (2013-18) and is a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences–British Society for Immunology expert taskforce on the immunology of COVID-19.

He has been a member of SAGE (2009-12), Chair and now vice-Chair or NERVTAG, a Department of Health committee horizon-scanning for emerging respiratory threats. He is a member of the UK Vaccine Network and several committees and Boards that oversee research on the immunology of respiratory infection.

He is Theme Lead for Infection at the Imperial Biomedical Research Centre, Respiratory Infections Section Head within the National Heart and Lung Institute and an NIHR Senior Investigator. He co-leads ISARIC4C, a UK-wide consortium established in 2020 to study the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nationality: Czech

Position: Professor of Epidemiology, Charles University, Prague

Research fields: Preventive medicine, clinical development of new vaccines (pneumococcus; rotavirus; measles, mumps, rubella (MMR); and human papillomavirus) 

ESWI member since: 2013

Professor Roman Prymula holds the position of Professor of Epidemiology at the Charles University in Prague, School of Medicine Hradec Kralove, Department of Preventive Medicine. He received his medical degree from Charles University, Prague in 1988 and his PhD from Purkyne Military Medical Academy, Hradec Kralove in 1999. Prof. Prymula also studied at the University of Birmingham, UK, where he completed an International Certificate in Hospital management in 1995.  In 1996 he became associate professor of epidemiology. 

He has been involved in various research activities in preventive medicine, including clinical development of new vaccines, such as those for pneumococcus; rotavirus; measles, mumps, rubella (MMR); and human papillomavirus. In addition to his active research and teaching activities, he has served as a member of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) management board, Chairman of the Central European Vaccination Awareness Group, and Chairman of the Czech Vaccinological Society JEP. 

Prof. Prymula is on the editorial board of several scientific journals and serves as a consultant for several national and international organisations. He is the former Minister of Health in the Czech Republic.

Nationality: French

Position: Head of unit of Molecular Genetics of RNA viruses, Department of Virology, Institut Pasteur

Research fields: Epidemiological and virological surveillance of human influenza viruses and of other respiratory viruses

ESWI member since 1998

Professor Sylvie van der Werf has a degree in Physiology and Biochemistry Agrégation (National Teaching Degree), a Doctorate in Microbiology with an option in Virology at the University of Paris, and a Doctorate in Natural Sciences specialising in Virology, also at the University of Paris.

She heads the unit of Molecular Genetics of RNA viruses which associates three research groups on influenza viruses (Epidemiology and evolution of respiratory viruses / Influenza virus-host cell interactions / Virus interactomics  and one research group on hepaciviruses (Hepacivirus / host interactions). Professor van der Werf is also Director of the coordinating center of the National Reference Centre for influenza viruses and WHO National Influenza Center (NIC) for Northern France as well as WHO Reference Laboratory for H5 influenza viruses and for the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV).

Past research positions include: Deputy-Director of the Fundamental Virology Course, Deputy-Chairman of the Department of Virology, Director of the URA 1966 CNRS Molecular Virology Unit. She is the author of 70 original scientific papers and more than 30 other scientific publications.

Nationality: German 

Position: Professor of  Pulmonary Infections Universities Giessen & Marburg Lung Center, and Head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the Giessen University Hospital,  Giessen, Germany

Research fields: Influenza Viruses , pneumonia and coronaviruses 

ESWI member since 2016

Professor Susanne Herold studied medicine at the University of Giessen from 1995 to 2002. She received her doctorate in 2003 with a thesis on monocytes in the lungs  and acquired her PhD 2008  at the University of Giessen. Since 2013, she has been a visiting professor at Northwestern University in Chicago for the Department of Pulmonary and Intensive Care Medicine. 

In 2018, Susanne Herold took over the professorship for infectious diseases of the lungs at the University of Giessen and at the same time became head of the Infectious Diseases Department at the Giessen University Hospital. 

She has been a member of numerous specialist societies, including the Academy of Charitable Sciences in Erfurt and the German Center for Infection Research since 2017. She is also a member of the  Scientific Advisory Board of the Robert Koch Institute and deputy chairman of the German Society for Infectious Diseases.  Since 2016, Prof. Herold has been leading a DFG- funded clinical research project on lung damage caused by viruses.

Nationality: British 

Position: Lecturer, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

Research fields: Molecular biology of influenza viruses

ESWI member since 2015

Dr. Hutchinson received his PhD in 2009 at the University of Cambridge. He was a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Oxford from 2009 – 2016. In 2016, he set up a research group at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research.

He was named ‘Young Microbiologist of the Year’ by the Microbiology Society in 2007, was awarded the New Researcher Science Communication Award by the Biosciences Federation in 2008, and has held a Junior Research Fellowship at Worcester College Oxford (2010 – 2014) and an MRC Career Development Award fellowship (2016 – 2021). 

Hutchinson’s work looks at the variations among influenza virus particles, particularly in their sizes and shapes and in the types of protein they contain, and seeks to understand how this diversity combines to shape the course of an influenza infection.

Nationality: American, British 

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

Research field: Virus Evolution

ESWI member since 2019

Professor Russell was a member of the University of Cambridge from 2002 to 2017; first as a PhD student, then postdoctoral research associate (2006) and junior research fellow (2008), and finally as a Royal Society University Research Fellow (2009). From 2008 to 2011, he was also a research fellow at the US National Institutes of Health. In 2017, he moved to AMC (Academic Medical Center, university hospital and Faculty of Medicine of the University of Amsterdam) to head the Laboratory of Applied Evolutionary Biology. 

Prof Russell’s research focuses on connecting processes at the within-host, between-host, and population scales, to understand the dynamics of influenza viruses and other respiratory pathogens. His research uses a combination of wet-lab and computational tools to study the interactions of processes at each of these scales. In addition to his research activities, he has been an advisor to the WHO influenza vaccine strain selection committee and he is the chair of the Infection Program of the Amsterdam Institute of Infection and Immunity.

Prof Russell has published extensively in leading scientific journals including Science, Nature, PNAS, and eLife. He is also the recipient of substantial research funding including grants from the Royal Society (UK), the US National Institutes of Health, and the Wellcome Trust. He is a current ERC and NWO Vici laureate.

Nationality: Dutch 

Position: Postdoc Erasmus University Rotterdam, acute internal medicine specialist, fellow intensive care 

Research fields: Special interest in acute care and infectious diseases

ESWI member since 2016

Marco Goeijenbier graduated from medical school at the University of Amsterdam in 2010. During his internships he did research on rodent-borne hemorrhagic fever. Goeijenbier received his PhD in virology (“Haemostasis and Virus Infection”) from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2015. He is currently a specialist in acute internal medicine and started a fellowship in intensive care at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam.

Some of Goeijenbier’s most recent published articles include ; “Thrombocytopenia in Virus Infections. (J Clin Med, feb 2021)” “Determinants of Vaccination Uptake in Risk Populations  (Vaccines, Aug 2020)” 

And Benefits of flu vaccination for persons with diabetes mellitus (Vaccine, Sep 2017).

Dr. Goeijenbier is ESWI’s lead member and Chair in the Influenza Diabetes Community (IDC). The IDC connects leading diabetes, patient, scientific and professional organisations around the common aim of protecting persons living with diabetes from influenza and other viral respiratory diseases like COVID-19.

Nationality:  Greek Cypriot 

Position: Occupational Health Physician, retired general practitioner

Research fields: Travel medicine; vaccine effectiveness, and immunisations

ESWI member since 2018

Dr George Kassianos studied medicine in Poland with a scholarship from the International Union of Students (IUS) where he graduated with honours at the Medical Academy of Lodz. He trained as a General Practitioner at the London Hammersmith and St. Mary’s Hospitals before joining his practice in Bracknell, Berkshire in 1979. 

George Kassianos has been the National Immunisation Lead for the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) since 1996 and is a fellow of the RCGP.  He is also a member of the UK’s Public Health England Advisory Panel on Healthcare Workers Infected with Blood-borne Viruses. He is a founding member, Fellow & President of ‘The British Global & Travel Health Association’, and chairs RAISE – the Pan-European Group on Influenza.

He writes extensively in the medical press and is a member of the British Medical Journalists’ Association. He was Editor-in-Chief and remains Associate Editor of the international journal “Drugs in Context”), and past Medical Editor of the Audit in General Practice journal, Care of the Elderly, and Managing Heart Failure in General Practice. He serves as  a member on several Editorial Boards of journals.