KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Jerome Kim

Jerome H. Kim, M.D., is an international expert on the development and evaluation of vaccines and is the Director General of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver safe, effective, and affordable vaccines for Global Health. He is a graduate of the University of Hawaii in Biology and received his M.D. from the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Kim has authored over 300 publications.

Yong-Zhen Zhang

His interest has been in virus diversity, evolution and ecology, as well as emerging infectious diseases. His lab has identified SARS-CoV-2 and made the accurate judgments on the virus and disease at the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak, and immediately reported their data and suggestions to related departments, and shared the viral genome sequences with the world.

Rebecca Armstrong

Rebecca Armstrong is a producer for ABC TV’s Australian Story program. She’s used to being behind the camera asking people about their experiences, not talking about her own. Last year Rebecca’s father died of COVID-19, and just how this nightmare scenario unfolded was not at all what the family expected.

Kari Lancaster

Kari Lancaster is Scientia Associate Professor at the Centre for Social Research in Health at the University of New South Wales, and Honorary Associate Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Kari is an interdisciplinary qualitative social researcher, with a background in law and public policy. Working at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies (STS), policy studies, and public health sociology, she leads a program of research focused on the development of critical approaches to the study of evidence-making practices and intervention translations in health. Kari is currently investigating viral elimination and outbreak science in the governance of health, Long Covid care and recovery.

Edward Holmes

Eddie Holmes is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow at the University of Sydney, which he joined in 2012. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) in 2015 and of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2017. He received the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science in 2021.

Dominic Dwyer

Professor Dominic Dwyer is a medical virologist and infectious diseases physician based in the ICPMR at Westmead Hospital and the University of Sydney. He undertook postgraduate research in HIV/AIDS at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. He has a clinical and research interest in viral diseases of public health importance, including SARS-CoV-2, influenza and other respiratory viruses, HIV, antiviral drug resistance and arboviruses. He is actively involved in investigations of outbreaks of viral infections, including at mass gatherings and closed environments. He worked with WHO during the SARS outbreak in China in 2003, and was a member of the World Health Organisation Joint Mission on the Origins of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China in 2021.

Paul Kelly

Professor Paul Kelly is currently the Chief Medical Officer at the Australian Government Department of Health. A public health physician and epidemiologist by training, Professor Kelly first joined the Department in March 2019 as the Chief Medical Adviser, Health Products Regulation Group. Prior to these appointments, Professor Kelly spent 8 years as Chief Health Officer for the Australian Capital Territory and Deputy Director‑General of Population Health in the ACT Government Health Directorate.

Professor Kelly has previously worked in research, health systems development, post-graduate teaching and as a health service executive including Director of Australia’s field epidemiology program at the Australian National University (ANU), and in the Northern Territory working as a Principal Research Fellow with the Menzies School of Health Research, as well as with the Centre for Disease Control in the NT Department of Health. Professor Kelly has also worked in Malawi, Indonesia, East Timor and the UK.