Hosted by the GPH Department of Global & Environmental Health
Professor Jo Ivey Boufford, Clinical Professor of Global Public Health at GPH will lead a conversation with Professor Peter Piot, world renowned microbiologist and global health expert, to explore his pioneering work in the field of infectious diseases and his experiences in leading the global initiatives to combat and prevent Ebola and HIV/AIDS. Attendees will have the unique opportunity to hear firsthand from Professor Piot about the important intersection between research, program development, policy and politics in preparing for future pandemics and creating a more resilient and equitable global health system. The audience will also have the opportunity to engage directly with a leading figure in global health, whose contributions have profoundly shaped our understanding and response to infectious diseases worldwide.
Please note this event is only open to current NYU students, faculty, and staff.
About the Speaker:
Peter Piot, MD, PhD is Handa Professor of Global Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Special Adviser on COVID-19 to the President of the European Commission, and EU Chief Scientific Advisor, Epidemics. He was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS, the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1995 until 2008. Under his leadership UNAIDS became the chief advocate for worldwide action against AIDS, also spearheading UN reform by bringing together 10 UN system organizations.
He received a lifetime achievement award from the WHO Director General for outstanding contribution to global health at the World Health Assembly in May 2023. Professor Piot was also a key member of the team that discovered the Ebola virus in Zaire in 1976. He has served as professor of microbiology, public health and global health at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, the University of Nairobi, and Imperial College London, and was a Senior Fellow at the University of Washington, a Scholar in Residence at the Ford Foundation, a Senior Fellow at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and held the chair “Knowledge against poverty” at the College de France in Paris.
He is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, the Académie Nationale de Médicine of France, and the Royal Academy of Medicine of his native Belgium, and a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK, and the Royal College of Physicians. He was knighted as a baron in his native Belgium in 1995, and has received national honors from the governments of Japan, Senegal, the UK and Zaire. He has published over 580 scientific articles and 16 books, including his memoir No Time to Lose. He was the recipient of the Calderone Prize, the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Research, the Prince Mahidol Award, the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award, and the Robert Koch Gold Medal.