Prof. W. Ian Lipkin Columbia University, USA

Ian Lipkin is internationally recognized for his contributions to global public health through the innovative methods he developed for infectious diseases diagnosis, surveillance, and discovery. Most notably, he had the first use of subtractive cloning in microbial discovery, the first use of next generation sequencing for investigating outbreaks, and developed... read moregene capture technologies including VirCapSeq-VERT and BacCapSeq as well as multiplexed serological assays to detect vector-borne diseases. These advances have been critical in replacing culture-dependent methods of global health management by creating new criteria for disease causation and de-linking spurious associations between putative agents and diseases. Such examples include refuting the MMR vaccine having a role in autism and XMRV in ME/CFS. Lipkin has been at the forefront of outbreak response to many of the world’s recent outbreaks, including West Nile Virus in NYC, SARS in China, MERS in Saudi Arabia, Zika in the Americas, and encephalitis in India. He promotes public health awareness via print and broadcast media and also served as the scientific advisor for the Soderberg film “Contagion”. Some of his most prestigious honors include Pew Scholar (Biomedical Sciences), Walter Reed Distinguished Lecturer, the Drexel Prize in Translational Medicine, the Mendel Medal (Villanova University), and the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award of the Peoples Republic of China. He is the Director of the Center for Solutions for ME/CFS, the Director for the Center for Research in Diagnostics and Discovery, and the Director for the Center of Infection and Immunity with the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.