Peter Horby

Executive Director

As Executive Director of ISARIC, Peter joins the other members of the Executive Board in being responsible for adopting ISARIC’s strategic priorities, plans and resources (including ISARIC’s research agenda, capacity building agenda, and rapid response to outbreaks), Peter is also Director of the Pandemic Sciences Institute, an interdisciplinary research institute at the University of Oxford with a mission to discover, create and enable practical, science-driven solutions to infectious disease threats worldwide. Peter trained in medicine at University College London and went on to specialise in emerging and epidemic prone infectious diseases. Over the last 20 years he has led research on a wide range of emerging and epidemic infections, including SARS, avian influenza, Ebola, Lassa fever, plague and COVID-19.

Peter is a regular advisor to the UK Government and the World Health Organization, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence, in 2024.