Dr. Gabriel is professor of virology at the University of Lübeck and head of the research group “Viral Zoonoses and Adaptation” at the Heinrich-Pette-Institute, Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology in Hamburg, Germany. She has studied Biology (Virology, Genetics and Microbiology) at the Philipps University of Marburg in Germany. During her studies, she also stayed at the Public Health Agency Canada, Special Pathogens Program, Winnipeg in Canada. Dr. Gabriel performed her PhD in 2006 at the Institute of Virology of the Philipps University of Marburg, Germany where she stayed another year as a Postdoctoral Fellow after her thesis. From 2007-2009 she held the position of a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. In 2009, Dr. Gabriel moved back to Germany where she received the prestigious Emmy-Noether Research Award to lead a junior group funded by the German Research Foundation. She led the research group until 2013 and became full-professor for virology in 2014. Dr. Gabriel is the recipient of ESWI’s first edition of the Best Body of Work Award in Influenza Research. In 2012, she received the Robert-Koch Förderpreis Award from the Robert-Koch Foundation. In 2014, Dr. Gabriel was elected as the Vice-President of ESWI.

• Dr. G.A. (Ted) van Essen has been a General Practitioner since 1976 and Vocational Trainer since 1981 in Amersfoort, the Netherlands.  He is also Assistant Professor (since 1992) at the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center, Utrecht.  He was President of the Dutch College of General Practitioners (from 2000-2004).
• Dr. Van Essen was born in the Netherlands and educated at the University of Groningen (M.D. and G.P.) and at Utrecht University were he received his Ph.D. Dr. Van Essen was a member of the Dutch Influenza Foundation, the Dutch Pneumococcal Foundation and different local, regional and national GP organisations. From 1996 to 2000 he was editor of Bijblijven, a Dutch CME-Journal.
• Some of his recent publications (amongst others) include: Kroneman M,  van Essen GA. Paget WJ. Influenza vaccination coverage and reasons to refrain among high-risk persons in four European countries. Vaccine 2006; 24: 622-8.; Ambrozaitis A, Gravenstein S, Van Essen GA, Rubinstein E, Balciuniene L, Stikleryte A, Crawford C, Elliot M, Shult P. Inhaled Zanamivir Versus Placebo for the Prevention of Influenza Outbreaks in an Unvaccinated Long-term Care Population. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2005; 6: 367-74; Macroepidemiology of Influenza (MIV) Study Group. The macroepidemiology of influenza vaccination in 56 countries, 1997-2003. A report from the Macroepidemiology of Influenza Vaccination (MIV) Study Group. Vaccine 2005; 23: 5133-43; Hak E, Buskens E, van Essen GA, De Bakker DH,  Grobbee DE, Tacken MAJB, Van Hout BA, Verheij TJM. Clinical effectiveness of influenza vaccination in persons younger than 65 years with high-risk medical conditions: The PRISMA Study. Arch Intern Med. 2005; 14;165: 274-80.

• Dr. Osterhaus currently holds the positions of Professor of Virology, Medical Faculty, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam (since 1993); Professor of Environmental Virology, Veterinary Faculty, State University Utrecht (since 1990); Director of the National Influenza Center (NIC), Rotterdam (since 1993); Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Arboviruses and Haemorrhagic Fever Reference and Research, Rotterdam (since 1995); Member of the Dutch Health Council (since 1995); Chairman of the European Scientific Working Group on Influenza (ESWI) (since 2000); CSO of ViroClinics BV and of ViroNative BV (both companies of the Erasmus MC holding).
• Dr.Osterhaus studied at the University of Utrecht, where he also completed his doctorate in 1978.
• From 1978 to 1994 he held various positions at the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in Bilthoven, the Netherlands.
• He was directly involved in setting up four commercial companies.
• Dr. Osterhaus is also a member of numerous professional societies including: American Society for Microbiology, Society for General Microbiology, European Scientific Working Group on Influenza, European Society for Veterinary Virology, European Society for Clinical Virology, European Association for Aquatic Mammals, Dutch Society for Microbiology, Dutch Society for Laboratory Animal Science, Dutch Society for Immunology, International Society for Vaccines, American Society for Virology, and European Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He is a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and was recently awarded the Royal decoration of Commander in the order of the Dutch Lion.
• Furthermore he holds many editorial positions for scientific publications, is the winner of several scientific awards, holds several patents, has been the supervisor and mentor of more than 35 PhD students and from 1980 onwards has held over 50 consultancy positions. Over the last 20 years, Dr. Osterhaus has identified more than a dozen “new” viral pathogens and he is author of more than 600 scientific papers.

• Born in Turku, Finland. Dr. Heikkinen was educated at the University of Turku, where he received degrees in M.D., Ph.D. and Docent, as well as Certifications of Specialist in General Paediatrics and Paediatric Infectious Diseases.
• Dr. Heikkinen has received the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Award, and worked for two years as a Research Fellow at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, USA. He is currently working as Assistent Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Turku in Finland.
• His major research interest lies in influenza and other respiratory infections in children, including otitis media. He has been author or co-author of a large amount of publications.

• Dr Openshaw is trained in Medicine at Guy’s Hospital and was awarded the Treasurer’s Gold Medal in Medicine. After SHO (Brompton, Turner-Warwick; Guy’s, Renal), and registrar posts (Hammersmith Hospital and Ealing), I became SR then Consultant at St Mary’s. My clinical work now comprises general outpatients and occasional ward cover, but I have maintained my role as a personal tutor and run weekly tutorials for medical students, give lectures on immunology, vaccination and lung diseases, co-ordinate a BSc module and teach regularly on other courses.
• Dr Openshaw was among the first 100 elected Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999). Scientifically, my greatest contribution has been to show the importance of host immune responses in not only defeating infection but also in causing disease. When the concept of Th1/2 subsets of CD4 T cells emerged in 1986/7, I applied this to the mouse model of RSV infection and showed that these distinctions were also relevant to viral disease. During a sabbatical at DNAX, California USA, I developed the newly described technique of intracellular cytokine analysis by FACS and applied it to cultured cells, leading to my most cited paper (J Exp Med, 1995; cited 352 times so far). This technique has become an immunological classic. Our detailed comprehensive immunophenotyping of virally infected mice has led to many novel insights, including studies of disease augmentation due to re-infection of neonatally primed mice (J Exp Med 2002) or formalin inactivated vaccines containing carbonyl groups (Nat Med 2006).
• Dr Openshaw founded the department in 1988 with myself and a technician (funded by my Wellcome Senior Fellowship in Clinical Science). I have succeeded in applications for 4 successive Wellcome programmes over 20 years. We now have 58 members of staff and have brought in more than £15 million in grant funding the past five years.
• Recently, the major focus has been in recruiting new leaders in and expanding the department.  Johnston, Lalvani, Hussell and Schwarze all developed (or are developing) their careers in my department and now all have personal chairs. The department was rebuilt to our design in 2002 (Wellcome Trust JIF award), and is now renowned internationally as a centre of expertise in viral lung infection.
• Dr Openshaw is Head of the ‘Respiratory Infections’ section of the National Heart and Lung Institute, a Division of the Faculty of Medicine. I organised and chaired the RSV symposium (Oxford, September 2005), a biennial global conference of ~250 experts. I review regularly for Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology, J Exp Med, The Lancet, BMJ, Vaccine, J Immunol, J Virol, etc and am on 6 Editorial boards. We run the core flow cytometry facility, and I chair the animal facility.
• Dr Openshaw served on Wellcome Trust’s Clinical Interest Group (1997-2003), Infection and Immunity (2002-2004) and the Tropical and Clinical Panels (2006-2009). I represent the Academy of Medical Sciences on the Science in Heath Group, was on the Academy’s Vaccines Working Group (2005) and sit on the grants award committee of Action Research UK (2004-2007). I became Secretary of the Medical Research Club in 2004. I am on the Board of Supervisors, VIRGO consortium, The Netherlands, 2005-2008 and was invited to join the Special Emphasis Panel, Centres of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance, NIH, USA in July 2006. I became a member of British Society for Immunology’s Council in 2006, and a member of the Department of Health’s Scientific Advisory Group on Pandemic Influenza in December 2007.
• Dr Openshaw serves on the scientific Advisory Board of Kenta Biotech, Bern, Switzerland (from September 2006). I have acted as consultant to Arrow Therapeutics, Symphogen and other companies.

• Roman Prymula is currently Dean of Faculty of Military Health Sciences, Chair of Department of epidemiology in Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic, and Professor of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology (2007).
• Dr. Prymula received his medical degree from Charles University, Prague in 1988 and his PhD from Purkyne Military Medical Academy, Hradec Kralove in 1999. Dr. Prymula also studied at the University of Birmingham, UK, where he completed International Certificate in Hospital management in 1995.  1996 he became associate professor of epidemiology. He has specialization degrees in Hygiene and Epidemiology, Public Health and Medical Microbiology. From 2002-2004 he held position of rector of Purkyne Military Medical Academy.
• He is involved in various research activities in preventive medicine including clinical development of new vaccines such as rotavirus, MMR-V, pneumococcus, HPV, etc. In addition to his active research and teaching activities he serves as consultant for several national and international organizations. Dr. Prymula is a member of ECDC management board, chairman of Central European Vaccine Advisory Board (CEVAG), chairman of the Czech Advisory Board for Epidemiology and chairman of the Czech Vaccinological Society JEP.
• He has written numerous articles and book chapters on vaccine preventable infectious diseases and monographs on bioterrorism and SARS. He is also a member of the editorial board of several scientific journals.

• Pr. van der Werf completed the following education: Agrégation (National Teaching Degree) in Physiology and Biochemistry, 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.
• Professionally Dr. van der Werf held several teaching and research positions. At the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Jeunes Filles she worked as a Student Professor and an Academic Assistant.  At the University of Paris she held several teaching positions in the Biochemistry Department: Academic Assistant, Master of Conferences and Professor: her current position.  At the Pasteur Institute in Paris she held several research positions: Deputy-Director of the Fundamental Virology Course, Deputy-Chairman of the Department of Virology, Director of the URA 1966 CNRS Molecular Virology Unit. Currently she is Head of the Molecular Genetics of Respiratory Viruses Unit. Currently she is also Director of the National Influenza Centre in Northern France and WHO’s Collaborating Center for Reference & Research on Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses.
• Pr. van der Werf is a member of the following professional bodies and societies: American Society of Microbiology, Société Française de Microbiologie, Society for General Microbiology in addition to previously being an editorial Board Member for the Journal of General Virology, Microbes and Infection and Virologie.
• Pr. van der Werf’s research interests previously in the field of picornaviruses on the molecular genetics of poliovirus and Mengo virus, and their use as vectors for vaccines and RNA immunisation, have been focused on respiratory viruses since 1996, particularly dealing with molecular epidemiology and molecular genetics aimed at the identification of determinants of species specificity of influenza viruses and the evaluation of vaccine strategies against SARS coronavirus.
• She is the author of 70 original scientific papers and more than 30 other scientific publications.

• Dr Ed Hutchinson is a Research Fellow at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, where his group studies the molecular biology of influenza viruses. He has a particular interest in combining proteomics with molecular biology and basic virology methods to uncover fundamental details of how influenza viruses replicate.
• Dr Hutchinson has worked on influenza viruses at a number of UK universities: as a graduate student at the University of Cambridge (receiving his PhD in 2009); as a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Oxford from 2009 – 2016; and since 2016 as a principal investigator at the University of Glasgow.
• Dr Hutchinson was named Young Microbiologist of the Year by the Society for General Microbiology in 2007, awarded the New Researcher Science Communication Award by the Biosciences Federation in 2008, held a Junior Research Fellowship at Worcester College, Oxford from 2010 – 2014 and received a Career Development Award from the UK Medical Research Council in 2016.