Sir Peter Horby is the Executive Director of ISARIC. He is also the Moh Family Foundation Professor of Emerging Infections and Global Health at the University of Oxford and the Director of the Pandemic Sciences Institute.
He 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. He lived and worked in Southeast Asia for 11 years, working initially for the World Health Organisation in Vietnam before establishing a research centre at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Hanoi in 2006. The research centre is still flourishing and in 2016 he was awarded the People’s Health Medal by the Government of Vietnam.
Peter is the coordinator of the African coaLition for Epidemic Research, Response and Training (ALERRT), a sub-Saharan Africa consortium on clinical research for epidemic-prone infections, with 21 partner institutions and representation across 25 sub-Saharan Africa countries. He is a member of the UK Government Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and chairs the New and Emergency Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group.
Peter co-leads the RECOVERY trial of treatments for COVID-19.
He was knighted for Services to Medical Research in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday honours list.