Peter Piot MD PhD is Handa Professor of Global Health and former Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and is EU Chief Scientific Advisor Epidemics. He is visiting professor at KULeuven and NUS Singapore. He was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations (1995-2008).
He co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976, and led research on AIDS, women’s health and infectious diseases. He was at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp; the University of Nairobi; the University of Washington; Imperial College, the College de France, WHO and the Gates Foundation. He is a member of the US, UK, Belgian and French Academies, of Medicine, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and is Vice-Chair of GHIT, Tokyo, He was made a Baron in Belgium, and awarded a UK Knighthood.
He received numerous awards, including the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award , the Robert Koch Gold Medal, the Prince Mahidol Award, the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Research, and was a 2014 TIME Person of the Year (The Ebola Fighters). He has published over 600 articles and 16 books, including No Time to Lose, He lives in Brussels.
This page was updated in May 2024.
