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PREPARE Leadership

Professor Wang Linfa
Executive Director
Professor Wang Linfa began his role as PREPARE’s inaugural Executive Director (ED) in September 2021 and is helming the Programme together with the PREPARE Executive Committee (PREPARE EXCO) comprising PREPARE’s Deputy ED, and Co-operative and Core leads. He is concurrently a Professor in the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, and was previously Director of the EID Programme. He is one of the world’s leading experts in zoonotic diseases, bat immunology and pathogen discovery. Prof Wang is also a member of multiple World Health Organization committees on COVID-19.

Professor David Lye
Deputy Executive Director
Professor David Lye serves as PREPARE’s inaugural Deputy Executive Director, officially taking office in November 2021. He is concurrently Director of the Infectious Disease Research and Training Office at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and jointly appointed as Professor at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine. He is also a member of the Expert Committee on COVID-19 Vaccination, Ministry of Health (MOH), Singapore. His main research interests are in COVID-19, dengue, antimicrobial resistance and clinical trials.
Co-operative and Core Leads

Professor Kelvin Bryan Tan
Analytics, Disease & Behaviour Modelling Co-operative Lead

Dr Kang Chang Wei
Environmental Transmission & Mitigation Co-operative Lead

Dr Judith Wong
Environmental Transmission & Mitigation Co-operative Deputy Lead

Dr Weng Ruifen
Diagnostics Co-operative Lead

Associate Professor Sylvie Alonso
Vaccines & Therapeutics Co-operative Lead

Associate Professor Yeo Tsin Wen
Regional Networks Co-operative Lead

Dr Chia Po Ying
Regional Networks Co-operative Deputy Lead

Associate Professor Barnaby Edward Young
Clinical Research & Databases Core Lead

Dr Ian Wee
Clinical Research & Databases Core Deputy Lead

Dr Conrad Chan
Biorepository Core Lead
Steering Committee

Professor Kenneth Mak
Chair, Director-General of Health, Ministry of Health

Professor Leo Yee Sin
Member, Senior Consultant, Director-General of Health's Office, Ministry of Health

Professor Derrick Heng
Member, Deputy Director-General of Health, Ministry of Health

Professor Vernon Lee
Member, Chief Executive Officer, Communicable Diseases Agency

Dr Chan Yew Wing
Member, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Systems), DSO National Laboratories

Dr Lisa Ooi
Member, Assistant Chief Executive, Biomedical Research Council, A*STAR

Associate Professor Ng Lee Ching
Member, Group Director, Environmental Health Institute, National Environment Agency

Professor Benjamin Seet
Member, Group CMB (Research), National Healthcare Group

Professor Joseph Sung
Member, Dean, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University

Professor Teo Yik Ying
Member, Dean, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore

Professor Chong Yap Seng
Member, Dean, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore

Professor Thomas Coffman
Member, Dean, Duke-NUS Medical School
Our advisors

Prof Baron Peter Piot
Chair, PREPARE International Advisory Panel (IAP)
Handa Professor of Global Health & Former Director
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
European Union (EU) Chief Scientific Advisor, Epidemics
Special Advisor on COVID-19 to the President of the European Commission
Visiting Professor
Rega Institute / KU Leuven / National University of Singapore (NUS)
Prof Peter Piot is the Handa Professor of Global Health and former Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is the EU Chief Scientific Advisor, Epidemics; Special Advisor on COVID-19 to the President of the European Commission, and visiting professor at the Rega Institute, KU Leuven, and the National University of Singapore (NUS). He was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations. He co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976, and led pioneering research on HIV, women’s health and infectious diseases. He is Vice-Chair of GHIT Fund, Tokyo, was a founding Board Member of CEPI, and the Chair of the King Baudouin Foundation.

Dr Meera Chand
Member, PREPARE International Advisory Panel (IAP)
Director, Clinical and Emerging Infections, UK Health Security Agency
Dr Meera Chand is a trained microbiologist and the Director of Clinical and Emerging Infections at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Her team is overseeing and coordinating UK responses to emerging infectious diseases events such as COVID-19, acute childhood hepatitis and the recent Monkeypox outbreaks.

Prof Rino Rappuoli
Member, PREPARE International Advisory Panel (IAP)
Scientific Director, Biotecnopolo di Siena Foundation, Italy
Head of MAD Lab Toscana Life Sciences, Italy
Prof Rino Rappuoli is the Scientific Director of the Biotecnopolo di Siena Foundation and head of MAD Lab Toscana Life Sciences, Italy. He was previously the Head R&D and Chief Scientist at GSK Vaccines, Head of Vaccine R&D at Novartis, CSO at Chiron Corporation, and Head R&D at Sclavo. He has introduced novel scientific concepts: genetic detoxification; cellular microbiology; reverse vaccinology; pangenome. His work on licensed vaccines include: acellular pertussis containing a non-toxic mutant of pertussis toxin; first conjugate vaccine against meningococcus C; MF59-adjuvanted seasonal and pandemic influenza MF59 was the first vaccine adjuvant after aluminium salts; meningococcus B; CRM 197 used as carrier in many conjugate vaccines.

Prof Johan Neyts
Member, PREPARE International Advisory Panel (IAP)
Virology, Antiviral Drug & Vaccine Research, Rega Institute for Medical Research,
Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Transplantation, Faculty of Medicine,
University of Leuven, Belgium
Prof Johan Neyts is a full professor of Virology at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium. His lab has a long-standing expertise in the development of antivirals strategies and drugs against emerging and neglected viral infections such as dengue and other flaviviruses, Chikungunya and other alphaviruses, enteroviruses, noroviruses, HEV and rabies and is intensively involved in the search for antiviral strategies against SARS-CoV2. He is the co-founder of KU Leuven spin-offs AstriVax and Okapi Sciences. Prof Neyts is responsible for the Belgian VirusBank platform, a 20 million euros investment by the Belgian Federal Government.

Prof Sharon Lewin
Member, PREPARE International Advisory Panel (IAP)
Director, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
Prof Sharon Lewin is the inaugural Director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, a joint venture between the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital. She is also an infectious diseases physician and basic scientist; Director of the Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics; and Melbourne Laureate Professor at The University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on understanding why HIV persists on treatment and developing clinical trials aimed at ultimately finding a cure for HIV infection. Prof Lewin is recognised as a leading global expert in HIV science and is the Immediate Past President of the International AIDS Society (IAS). She has received numerous awards, including being appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of her distinguished service to medical research, and to education and clinical care, in the field of infectious diseases, particularly HIV and AIDS.
PREPARE Programme Office

The PREPARE Programme Office, administratively hosted at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), supports PREPARE with administrative matters and coordination among the co-operative programmes and long-term capability cores, working closely with the National Medical Research Council Office (NMRCO) at the Ministry of Health (MOH).