Colin John McInnes FRSA FAcSS FLSW (born 18 June 1960) is Pro Vice Chancellor (Research, Knowledge Exchange and Innovation) at Aberystwyth University and holds a personal professorial chair in the Department of International Politics there, where his research focuses on global health politics. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts. In 2014 he was appointed by the Secretary of State for International Development as a Non-Executive Director of the UK National Commission (UKNC) for UNESCO, with special responsibility for the Social and Human Sciences, and represents the UK on UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences Commission. He was elected Chair of the UKNC in 2019 and in this role works closely with the British government, UNESCO designations and UNESCO HQ in Paris. In 2017 he received the Special Achievement Award at the inaugural Wales Social Research awards, for his 'outstanding personal achievement in research'. In 2022, he was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. [1]
He was previously a lecturer in the Department of War Studies, The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London; and Special Adviser to the House of Commons Defence Committee. He was also Chair of the British International Studies Association; a member of the ESRC's Strategic Research Board and International Advisory Committee; member of WHO's expert group on Global Health Diplomacy; and Director of the UK Research Councils' Security Research Forum. From 2007-2018 he held the UNESCO Chair in HIV/AIDS, reflecting his research interests at that time. In 2019 he was a Consultant to the World Health Organization, developing their framework for civil-military collaboration in health emergencies. He recently advised Public Health Wales on its development of an international health strategy, and the InterAction Council (a group of over 40 former Presidents and Prime Ministers) on global health issues. He was on the REF 2014 Politics and International Studies panel and is on the REF 2021 panel for both the criteria and assessment stage as well as being an interdisciplinary panel member.
Colin McInnes’ research currently focuses on global health politics, and especially the role of militaries in health crises. He has published widely on the security implications of HIV/AIDS, on health and foreign policy, on global health security, and on global health governance. His more recent research addressed the use of social media during health crises, and the nature of risk in global health. He is the co-editor of the 'Oxford Handbook on Global Health Politics' (2020).
For a full list of publications, see: https://pure.aber.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/colin-mcinnes(3b27268e-c396-4a4b-bcbb-2a1f4ff748f7)/publications.html
James Jude Orbinski, is a Canadian physician, humanitarian activist, author and leading scholar in global health. Orbinski was the 2016-17 Fulbright Visiting professor at the University of California, Irvine, and as of September 1, 2017, he is professor and inaugural director of the Dahdaleh Institute of Global Health Research at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was previously the CIGI Chair in Global Health Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and Wilfrid Laurier University (2012-2017), Chair of Global Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (2010-2012) and full professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto (2003-2012), where he was the founding Saul Rae Fellow at Massey College. Orbinski's current research interests focus on the health impacts of climate change, medical humanitarianism, intervention strategies around emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, and global health governance.
Sir Peter Karel, Baron Piot, is a Belgian-British microbiologist known for his research into Ebola and AIDS.
Donald Pinkston Francis is an American epidemiologist who worked on the Ebola outbreak in Africa in the late 1970s, and as an HIV/AIDS researcher. He retired from the U.S. Public Health Service in 1992, after 21 years of service. He lives in San Francisco, California.
Katalin Annamária Bogyay is a Hungarian ambassador, diplomat, journalist and the President of the United Nations Association of Hungary since April 2021. She has been a lecturer at the Corvinus University of Budapest since 2022, and teaching at the Hungarian Diplomatic Academy since 2021. In 2021 she founded the Women4Diplomacy movement. She served as the 15th Permanent Representative of Hungary to the United Nations in New York. She is the former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Delegate of Hungary to UNESCO (2009–2014) and the President of the 36th session of UNESCO General Conference (2011–2013).
LSE IDEAS is a foreign policy think tank at the London School of Economics and Political Science. IDEAS was founded as a think tank for Diplomacy and Strategy in February 2008, succeeding the Cold War Studies Centre founded in 2004. It is led by Professor Christopher Alden and Professor Michael Cox. LSE IDEAS has been ranked as the top European university-affiliated think tank and the number two university-affiliated think tank in the world.
Science diplomacy is the use of scientific collaborations among nations to address common problems and to build constructive international partnerships. Science diplomacy is a form of new diplomacy and has become an umbrella term to describe a number of formal or informal technical, research-based, academic or engineering exchanges, within the general field of international relations and the emerging field of global policy making.
Simon Rushton is a British academic who has written on global health with a particular focus on international responses to HIV/AIDS, the links between health and security, the changing architecture of global health governance, and issues surrounding conflict and health. He is an Associate Fellow of the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House.
The Centre for Health and International Relations (CHAIR) was founded (2003) in the belief that there are compelling reasons for linking international relations, foreign policy, security and health. CHAIR is based in the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Wales. The founder and director is Professor Colin McInnes.
Sir Jeremy James Farrar is a British medical researcher who serves as Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization since 2023. He was previously the director of The Wellcome Trust from 2013 to 2023 and a professor of tropical medicine at the University of Oxford.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is an Ethiopian public health official, researcher, diplomat, and the Director-General of the World Health Organization since 2017. Tedros is the first African to become WHO Director-General, receiving an endorsement for the role by the African Union. He played a role in the response to the Ebola virus epidemic, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2022–2023 mpox outbreak.
Elhadj As Sy is a Senegalese humanitarian aid expert who served as the Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) from 2014 until 2019.
Professor Helen Rees OBE GCOB D.Sc. Medicine LLD is a medical doctor, and the founder and executive director of Wits RHI, the largest research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is a Personal Professor in the University of Witwatersrand's Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, co-director and co-founder of the Wits African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE), Honorary Professor in the Department of Clinical Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an Honorary Fellow at Cambridge University's Murray Edwards College, UK.
Melissa Leach, is a British geographer and social anthropologist. She studies sustainability and development concerns in policy-making and has a focus on the politics of science and technology of Africa. As of 2017 she was the Director of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) located on the University of Sussex campus.
The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD) is a research institute on self-determination, self-governance, and diplomacy. LISD is affiliated with the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Founded in 2000 by the Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein, the Institute aims to enhance global peace and stability through its projects, publications, and commentaries.
Veronica Strang is an author and professor of anthropology affiliated to Oxford University. Her work combines cultural anthropology with environmental studies, and focuses on the relationship between human communities and their environments. Strang's publications include the books 'The Meaning of Water' ; Gardening the World: agency, identity, and the ownership of water' ; 'What Anthropologists Do', 'Water Nature and Culture' and most recently 'Water Beings: from nature worship to the environmental crisis', which is based on a major comparative study of water deities around the world. Further information is available on her website at: https://www.veronicastrang.com/
Health security is a concept that encompasses activities and measures across sovereign boundaries that mitigates public health incidents to ensure the health of populations. It is an evolving paradigm within the fields of international relations and security studies. Proponents of health security posit that all states have a responsibility to protect the health and wellbeing of their populations. Opponents suggest health security impacts civil liberties and the equal distribution of resources.
Robert Peckham is a British writer and historian of science, technology, and medicine. His most recent academic appointment was at the University of Hong Kong as MB Lee Professor in the Humanities and Medicine, Chair of the Department of History, and Director of the Centre for the Humanities and Medicine. He is the founder of Open Cube, "an organisation that promotes the integration of the arts, science, and technology for health."
Rebecca Katz is a professor and director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center. She is an expert in global health and international diplomacy, specializing in emerging infectious diseases. From 2004 to 2019, she was a consultant for the United States Department of State on matters related to the Biological Weapons Convention and emerging infectious disease threats. Katz served on the Joe Biden presidential campaign's public health panel to advise on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kelley Lee is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Global Health Governance and Professor of Global Public Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. She has studied the impact of globalisation on public health, with a particular focus on the tobacco industry. During the COVID-19 pandemic Lee initiated and led the Pandemics and Borders Project to understand effective ways to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2 through the effective use of travel measures.
Susan Caroline Kippax is an Australian social psychologist and is Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales.