Board - Global Virus Network

Leadership

Board of Directors

Robert Gallo, MD

GVN Co-Founder;
International Scientific Director & Chairman of the GVN Scientific Leadership Committee;
GVN Board Executive Committee;
Director, University of South Florida (USF) Institute of Translational Virology and Innovation;
James P. Cullison Professor of Medicine, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine;
Director, Microbial Oncology Program, Tampa General Hospital Cancer Institute

Statement from GVN's International Scientific Advisor and Chair, Scientific Leadership Board

The concept of a Global Virus Network began back in the 1980s when a small group of virologists realized that virtually no working virologists had a global directive for researching the cause of AIDS during the earliest years of the epidemic. Conversely, important groups such as the World Health Organization, which did have a global mandate for combating the new disease, had virtually no resident expertise in the kind of virus that was subsequently shown to be the cause of AIDS, namely, a retrovirus. Examining the history of other great epidemics of the 20th century, such as Influenza and Polio, reveals similar disconnects between available expertise and the urgent public need to identify causation and modes of prevention.

GVN Centers, with strong working relationships among them, are poised to engage in any outbreak situation by providing the world’s only network of top basic virologists from around the globe, covering all classes of human and many animal viral threats. GVN is also committed to training the next generation of virologists in order to meet the critical need posed by the graying of members of our own discipline, and to inform and educate policymakers and members of the public about the role of virologists in mitigating viral illness and preventing infections from taking hold in populations. This is especially important as my colleagues and I have noticed a significant decline in students entering the field of virology.

Christian Bréchot, MD, PhD

Vice Chair, GVN Board of Directors
President Emeritus, GVN

Statement from GVN's Vice Chair

Of all the challenges that threaten the world’s population, biosecurity – including highly infectious viruses being used as biological agents to harm mankind – poses one of the greatest global risks. Viruses cause millions of deaths each year. Old, young, rich, and poor – all are susceptible to these silent killers.

The Global Virus Network (GVN) is an essential and critical defense against viruses that pose a clear and present threat to public health. It is a coalition comprised of eminent virologists spanning more than 30 countries worldwide, and working to advance knowledge about how to identify and diagnose such viruses, how they spread and make us sick, as well as to develop drugs and vaccines to prevent illness and death while providing the patients with the best treatments.

No single institution in the world has expertise in all viral areas except the GVN. GVN coalesces the best medical virologists to leverage individual strengths and to focus global teams of specialists on key scientific problems. The power of GVN lies in its global reach, the depth of its science, and its commitment to solving viral challenges facing the human population.

GVN has an important role to play in our preparedness and response to emerging viral threats, especially in the aspects related to research and development, working in close coordination with all national and international institutions at stake.

It has been a great honor for me to be President of the Global Virus Network and now appointed as Vice Chairman of the Board. I look forward to continuing to help the GVN grow and develop, both scientifically, operationally, and financially, as well as to working with Dr. Robert Gallo (GVN Co-Founder and International Scientific Advisor), GVN's new president, Dr. Sten Vermund, and all GVN members, without whom the GVN would not have been possible.

I hope you will join me.

Mathew L. Evins

GVN Chief Executive Officer
Treasurer & Emeritus Executive Chair, GVN Board
GVN Board Executive Committee
Chairman & CEO, Evins Communications, Ltd.

Statement from the Treasurer & Managing Executive

Having been privileged to serve as Secretary and Treasurer since the organization’s founding, I am incredibly honored to have been elected to serve as Executive Chairman of the Global Virus Network. I could not be more appreciative nor more grateful for the opportunity of working closely with Dr. Gallo, Dr. Bréchot, Dr. Giroir, and Dr. Vermund, the GVN team, and with my distinguished colleagues on the Board of Directors to advance and further the mission and consequence of the GVN.

The COVID-19 pandemic has conclusively demonstrated the absolute and compelling need for a global and apolitical organization committed to the preparedness, defense, and first research response to emerging, existing, and unidentified viruses that pose a clear and present threat to public health. The GVN was created to address that threat by coalescing eminent virologists, epidemiologists, infectious disease experts and public health specialists throughout the world, working collaboratively and accretively to advance knowledge about how to identify and diagnose pandemic viruses, mitigate and control how such viruses spread and make us sick, train the next generation of virologists, facilitate the development of drugs, vaccines and treatments to combat them as well as addressing the pervasive and often politicized public disinformation and misinformation. The GVN can and must be the definitive go-to authority and resource to anticipate, respond, and mitigate global viral threats, as well as a beacon for advocacy, education, enlightenment, and insight based solely upon science.

The GVN is at a critical inflection point. Thanks to the outstanding acumen and expertise as well as the relationships and resources of the members of the GVN’s board of directors, we are now in a position to make the critical and consequential decisions necessary to advance and further the sustainability of the GVN, both financially and operationally, to ensure the future viability of the organization and make sure that the world will never again be unprepared, untrained, ill-equipped and uninformed to deal with pandemic viruses.

Statement from GVN's International Scientific Advisor and Chair, Scientific Leadership Board

Statement from GVN's Vice Chair

I hope you will join me.

Statement from the Treasurer & Managing Executive

Quarraisha Abdool Karim, PhD

Associate Scientific Director, CAPRISA/ Pro-Vice Chancellor for African Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal/ UNAIDS Special Ambassador for Adolescents and HIV

Lawrence Blatt, PhD

Chief Executive Officer and Board Member, Aligos Therapeutics

Tomas Cihlar, PhD

Senior Vice President of Research, Virology, Gilead Sciences

FREE IMAGE-NO REPRO FEE. Rosarii Griffin, Centre for Teaching and Learning, UCC. Photo by Tomas Tyner, UCC.

Rosarii Griffin, BA, HDE, MEd., (UCC), MSc. DPhil. (Oxon), FRSA, DDVS

Secretary and Director, International Consortium of Research Staff Associations (ICORSA) / Researcher, University College Cork, Ireland

William Hall MD, PhD

Professor of Microbiology and Public Health (Emeritus), University College Dublin (UCD)

Hideki Hasegawa, MD, PhD

Research Director, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo

Andrew Jack

Journalist and Global Education Editor, Financial Times

Lan Kennedy-Davis

Attorney, RumbergerKirk

Mark Kessel

Former Managing Partner, Shearman & Sterling and Founder, Symphony Capital LLC)

Heidi Larson, PhD

Clinical Professor of Health Metrics Sciences and Director of European Initiatives, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)/ Professor and Leader, Vaccine Confidence Project, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

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Sharon Lewin, MD, PhD

Director, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (The University of Melbourne) / Melbourne Laureate Professor of Medicine

Yang Liu, Ph.D.

Cofounder, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer, OncoImmun

Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM

Executive Vice President, USF Health, University of South Florida/Dean, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine/Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer, Tampa General Hospital (TGH)/Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Public Health, University of South Florida.

Timothy Moynahan

Founder & Owner: Moynahan Partners & Moynahan Law Firm
GVN Board Executive Committee

Johan Neyts, PhD

Full Professor of Virology, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium

Yiming Shao, MD, PhD

Chief Expert on AIDS, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC)/ Director of the Division of Research on Virology and Immunology, National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, China CDC/ Vice Chair, Chinese Microbiology Society

Eduardo Sotomayor, MD

Vice President and Executive Director, TGH Cancer Institute, Tampa General Hospital

Anders Vahlne, MD, PhD

Professor Emeritus in Clinical Virology, Karolinska Institute
GVN Board Executive Committee

Pan Zheng, MD, PhD

Cofounder, Chief Medical Officer, and Board Member, OncoImmun

Robert Gallo, MD

Chair

GVN Co-Founder, International Scientific Director & Chairman of the GVN Scientific
Leadership Committee, GVN Board Executive Committee; Director, University of South
Florida (USF) Institute of Translational Virology and Innovation; James P. Cullison Professor of Medicine, USF Health Morsani College of Medicine; Director, Microbial Oncology Program,
Tampa General Hospital Cancer Institute

Expertise: HIV, HTLV-1, HTLV-2, HHV-6.

Alash’le Abimiku MSc, PhD.

SLC & SRC

Executive Director, International Research Center of Excellence at the Institute of
Human Virology-Nigeria (IRCE-IHVN); Professor of Medicine University of Maryland School of Medicine, Institute of Human Virology, Baltimore

Expertise: HIV, TB, SARS-CoV-2, HPV

Jean Paul Carrera, MSc, MA, PhD

SLC & SRC

Senior Investigator in Virology and Epidemiology, Centro Regional de Innovación en Vacunas y Biofármacos AIP (CRIVB AIP)

Expertise: Alphaviruses, dengue virus, SARS-CoV-2, Punta Toro virus, and Mayaro virus.

William De Souza, PhD

SLC

Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky College of Medicine

Expertise: Chikungunya, Zika, St. Louis Encephalitis (SLEV), Western Equine Encephalitis (WEEV), Oropouche, Hantavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

Robert Garry, PhD

SLC

Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Associate Dean for Biomedical Sciences, Tulane University

Expertise: Lassa, Ebola, Marburg, HIV and other retroviruses, SARS-CoV-2, Influenza

Marion Koopmans, DVM, PhD

SLC

Professor of Public Health Virology and the former head of the Department of
Viroscience, Erasmus Medical Center. Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at Erasmus MC.

Expertise: SARS-CoV-2, Noroviruses, Ebola, Zika, Avian Influenza, West Nile Virus and
Usutu Virus.

David Martinez, PhD

SLC

Assistant Professor, Yale School of Medicine

Expertise: Coronaviruses, Flaviviruses, and HIV

Kristi Miley, MSPH, PhD

SLC & SRC

Research Associate, USF, College of Public Health

Experience: EEEV, West Nile, Tropical Diseases, SARS-CoV-2

Rubeshan Perumal, MBChB, MPH, MMed, MPhil, FCP(SA), Cert Pulmonology(SA)

SLC & SRC

Head of TB/HIV Treatment Research at Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)

Expertise: HIV, SARS-CoV-2

Damian Purcell, PhD

SLC

Head of the Molecular Virology Laboratory in the Department of Microbiology and
Immunology, University of Melbourne, Head of Industry Partnerships and Laboratory Head for the Purcell Lab, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity

Experience: HIV, Hepatitis

Marco Salemi, MS, PhD

SLC & SRC

Emerging Pathogens Institute Interim Director, University of Florida, Holloway Professor in Experimental Pathology, University of Florida

Experience: HIV, SARS-CoV-2, HCV, HTLV, and influenza.

Mario Stevenson, PhD

SLC

Professor in the Department of Medicine
Director of the Institute of AIDS and Emerging Infectious Diseases (IAEID)
Co-Director of the Miami Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) at the University of Miami

Expertise: HIV/AIDS, SARS-CoV-2, Zika, Monkeypox

Michael Teng, PhD

SLC & SRC

Associate Professor at the USF Morsani College of Medicine

Expertise: SARS-CoV-2, Zika, HPV

Linfa Wang, PhD

SLC

Executive Director, Program for Research in Epidemic Preparedness and Response
(PREPARE), Professor, Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS

Experience: Coronaviruses, Nipah virus, Hendra virus, Ebola virus, Dengue virus, Zika virus, and Chikungunya virus.

Scott Weaver, MS, PhD

SLC

John Sealy Distinguished University Chair in Human Infections and Immunity
Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Pathology
Director, Institute for Human Infections & Immunity
Scientific Director, Galveston National Laboratory
University of Texas Medical Branch

Expertise: Chikungunya, Zika, Venezuela E

Christian Bréchot, MD, PhD

Advisor SLC & SRC

Vice Chairman, GVN Board of Directors; President Emeritus, GVN; Director, University
of South Florida Microbiomes Institute, Asst Vice President, College of Medicine Internal
Medicine; Sr. Assoc. Dean for Research for Global Affairs, Morsani College of Medicine;
Assoc. VP, International Partnerships & Innovation, Morsani College of Medicine, USF.

Expertise: HBV, HCV, SARS-CoV-2, and a broad range of emerging infectious diseases.

Sten Vermund, MD, PhD

Advisor SLC & SRC

Chief Medical Officer, GVN; Senior Associate Vice President, USF Health; Dean,
University of South Florida College of Public Health

Expertise: HIV/AIDS, HPV, COVID-19, parasitic diseases, emerging infectious diseases (including avian influenza)

Stephano Bertozzi, MD, PhD

Professor, Health Policy and Management, UC Berkeley; Co-director, Berkeley Public Health China Program; Editor in Chief, Rapid Reviews: COVID-19

Expertise: HIV, SARS-COV-2

Shyam Kottilil, MD, PhD

Professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine; Co-Director, IHV Clinical Research Unit; Division Head; Infectious Diseases; Interim Director of Institute of Human Virology

Expertise: HBV, HCV, HIV, Immunology

Shyam Mohapatra, PhD, MBA

Distinguished Health Professor;
Director, Center for Research and Education in Nanomedicine and Bioengineering;
Program Director, Antiviral Therapeutics at the Institute of Translational Virology and Innovation, Department of Internal Medicine, Morsani College of Medicine;
Senior Research Career Scientist, James A. Haley VA Hospital;
Co-Founder and President, FL Association of Nanotechnology and Global Academy of Nanobiotechnology

Expertise: Immunology, Oncology, RSV, HIV

Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH

Director, Polio Program, Gates Foundation

Expertise: Polio, Influenza, Rotavirus, SARS-CoV-2

Madhavan Pillai, MD

Advisory Board Chairman, Oncology Centre, Dr. KM Cherian Institute of Medical Sciences; Clinical Professor of Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University; President of International Network of Cancer Treatment & Research

Expertise: Oncology

Marco Salemi, MS, PhD

Professor of Experimental Pathology, Department of Pathology, Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, UF College of Medicine; Holloway Chair for research in Chronic and Infectious Disease; Emerging Pathogens Institute Interim Director

Expertise: Molecular Evolution, Phylogenetic Analysis, HIV, HCV, HTLV, Influenza, SARS-CoV-2

John Sinnott, MD

Professor, Internal Medicine, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida

Expertise: HIV, Influenza, SARS-CoV-2

Mario Stevenson, PhD

Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Miami, Director of Institute of AIDS and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Co-Director of the Miami Center for AIDS Research

Leadership

Board of Directors

Robert Gallo, MD

Christian Bréchot, MD, PhD

Mathew L. Evins

Quarraisha Abdool Karim, PhD

Lawrence Blatt, PhD

Tomas Cihlar, PhD

Rosarii Griffin, BA, HDE, MEd., (UCC), MSc. DPhil. (Oxon), FRSA, DDVS

William Hall MD, PhD

Hideki Hasegawa, MD, PhD

Andrew Jack

Lan Kennedy-Davis

Mark Kessel

Heidi Larson, PhD

Sharon Lewin, MD, PhD

Yang Liu, Ph.D.

Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM

Timothy Moynahan

Johan Neyts, PhD

Yiming Shao, MD, PhD

Eduardo Sotomayor, MD

Anders Vahlne, MD, PhD

Pan Zheng, MD, PhD

Robert Gallo, MD

Chair

Expertise: HIV, HTLV-1, HTLV-2, HHV-6.

Alash’le Abimiku MSc, PhD.

SLC & SRC

Executive Director, International Research Center of Excellence at the Institute of Human Virology-Nigeria (IRCE-IHVN); Professor of Medicine University of Maryland School of Medicine, Institute of Human Virology, Baltimore

Expertise: HIV, TB, SARS-CoV-2, HPV

Jean Paul Carrera, MSc, MA, PhD

SLC & SRC

Senior Investigator in Virology and Epidemiology, Centro Regional de Innovación en Vacunas y Biofármacos AIP (CRIVB AIP)

Expertise: Alphaviruses, dengue virus, SARS-CoV-2, Punta Toro virus, and Mayaro virus.

William De Souza, PhD

SLC

Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky College of Medicine

Expertise: Chikungunya, Zika, St. Louis Encephalitis (SLEV), Western Equine Encephalitis (WEEV), Oropouche, Hantavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

Robert Garry, PhD

SLC

Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Associate Dean for Biomedical Sciences, Tulane University

Expertise: Lassa, Ebola, Marburg, HIV and other retroviruses, SARS-CoV-2, Influenza

Marion Koopmans, DVM, PhD

SLC

Professor of Public Health Virology and the former head of the Department of Viroscience, Erasmus Medical Center. Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at Erasmus MC.

Expertise: SARS-CoV-2, Noroviruses, Ebola, Zika, Avian Influenza, West Nile Virus and Usutu Virus.

David Martinez, PhD

SLC

Assistant Professor, Yale School of Medicine

Expertise: Coronaviruses, Flaviviruses, and HIV

Kristi Miley, MSPH, PhD

SLC & SRC

Research Associate, USF, College of Public Health

Experience: EEEV, West Nile, Tropical Diseases, SARS-CoV-2

Rubeshan Perumal, MBChB, MPH, MMed, MPhil, FCP(SA), Cert Pulmonology(SA)

SLC & SRC

Head of TB/HIV Treatment Research at Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)

Expertise: HIV, SARS-CoV-2

Damian Purcell, PhD

SLC

Head of the Molecular Virology Laboratory in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Head of Industry Partnerships and Laboratory Head for the Purcell Lab, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity

Experience: HIV, Hepatitis

Marco Salemi, MS, PhD

SLC & SRC

Emerging Pathogens Institute Interim Director, University of Florida, Holloway Professor in Experimental Pathology, University of Florida

Experience: HIV, SARS-CoV-2, HCV, HTLV, and influenza.

Mario Stevenson, PhD

SLC

Professor in the Department of Medicine Director of the Institute of AIDS and Emerging Infectious Diseases (IAEID) Co-Director of the Miami Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) at the University of Miami

Expertise: HIV/AIDS, SARS-CoV-2, Zika, Monkeypox

Michael Teng, PhD

SLC & SRC

Associate Professor at the USF Morsani College of Medicine

Expertise: SARS-CoV-2, Zika, HPV

Linfa Wang, PhD

SLC

Executive Director, Program for Research in Epidemic Preparedness and Response (PREPARE), Professor, Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS

Experience: Coronaviruses, Nipah virus, Hendra virus, Ebola virus, Dengue virus, Zika virus, and Chikungunya virus.

Scott Weaver, MS, PhD

Executive Director, International Research Center of Excellence at the Institute of
Human Virology-Nigeria (IRCE-IHVN); Professor of Medicine University of Maryland School of Medicine, Institute of Human Virology, Baltimore

Professor of Public Health Virology and the former head of the Department of
Viroscience, Erasmus Medical Center. Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at Erasmus MC.

Expertise: SARS-CoV-2, Noroviruses, Ebola, Zika, Avian Influenza, West Nile Virus and
Usutu Virus.

Head of the Molecular Virology Laboratory in the Department of Microbiology and
Immunology, University of Melbourne, Head of Industry Partnerships and Laboratory Head for the Purcell Lab, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity

Professor in the Department of Medicine
Director of the Institute of AIDS and Emerging Infectious Diseases (IAEID)
Co-Director of the Miami Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) at the University of Miami

Executive Director, Program for Research in Epidemic Preparedness and Response
(PREPARE), Professor, Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS

John Sealy Distinguished University Chair in Human Infections and Immunity
Professor, Department of Microbiology & Immunology and Pathology
Director, Institute for Human Infections & Immunity
Scientific Director, Galveston National Laboratory
University of Texas Medical Branch

Chief Medical Officer, GVN; Senior Associate Vice President, USF Health; Dean,
University of South Florida College of Public Health