Peter Piot

Peter Piot

Dr. Peter Piot, MD, PhD, is Professor of Global Health and Director of the Institute for Global Health at Imperial College, London, UK.  He was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1995 until 2008, and served as an Associate Director of the Global Programme on AIDS of the World Health Organization. Under his leadership, UNAIDS became the chief advocate for worldwide action against AIDS, spearheading UN reform by bringing together 10 UN system organizations in the global AIDS response.

Dr. Piot co-discovered the Ebola virus in Zaire in 1976 and led research on HIV/AIDS, women’s health, and public health in Africa. He was a professor of microbiology and of public health at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, the Free University of Brussels, and the University of Nairobi. He also was a Senior Fellow at the University of Washington, a Scholar in Residence at the Ford Foundation, and a Senior Fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He holds the chair for 2009-2010 in “Science against poverty” at the College de France in Paris and is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics.

He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academy of Sciences and of the Royal Academy of Medicine of his native Belgium. He also is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He is the President of the King Baudouin Foundation, was knighted as a baron in 1995, and has published more than 500 scientific articles and 16 books.

In September 2010, Dr. Piot will become Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.