Dr Jonathan Van-Tam

Dr Jonathan Van-Tam

Dr Jonathan Van-Tam is Professor of Public Health Protection at the University of Nottingham. His research group is an official WHO Collaborating Centre for Pandemic Influenza and Research. Dr Van-Tam graduated in Medicine from the University of Nottingham in 1987. After 5 years of hospital-based clinical medicine, he pursued an academic training in public health and epidemiology and developed an interest in influenza and respiratory viruses, mentored for many years by Prof Karl Nicholson. He became a Senior Lecturer at the University of Nottingham (and Consultant Regional Epidemiologist, Public Health Laboratory Service) in 1997, before joining the pharmaceutical industry as an Associate Director at SmithKline Beecham in 2000. In April 2001 he moved to Roche as Head of Medical Affairs, before joining Aventis Pasteur MSD in February 2002 as UK Medical Director. He returned to the public sector in 2004 at the Health Protection Agency Centre for Infections, where he was Head of the Pandemic Influenza Office until October 2007. Jonathan has now returned to Nottingham as Professor of Health Protection, maintaining his 20 year special interest in influenza: epidemiology; transmission; vaccinology; and pandemic preparedness. Over that time he has published over 100 scientific papers and written several chapters in textbooks. He chaired the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Expert Advisory Group on H5N1 human vaccines, sits on the UK national Scientific Pandemic Influenza Committee (SPI), the UK Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and has acted as a short term consultant and temporary adviser to the World Health Organization on many occasions. He led the national FLU-CIN project for hospitalised pandemic flu cases; and two further emergency pandemic research projects funded by the National Institute for Health Research. He is Senior Editor of the textbook: “Introduction to Pandemic Influenza” (www.cabi.org) which came out in November 2009. Recently his group became an official WHO Collaborating Centre for pandemic influenza and research.

Stories by Dr Jonathan Van-Tam