Prof Gavin Smith is a Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases and Global Health with appointments at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore and the Duke Global Health Institute at Duke University. His primary training was in ecology and evolution at The University of Melbourne. He obtained his PhD from The University of Hong Kong, where he also undertook his post-doctoral training in the Department of Microbiology.
Prof Smith’s research programme primarily investigates the ecology and evolution of zoonotic viruses and the molecular epidemiology of human respiratory pathogens. His contributions are internationally recognized, having received numerous research awards including a 7-year career development award from the USA National Institutes of Health; and being appointed as Beijerinck Guest Chair, Beijerinck Virology Fund, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Kingdom of the Netherlands. His studies have played a key role in global efforts to control influenza outbreaks by providing genetic analysis to expert committees formulating policy in this area, including pre-pandemic vaccine strain selection. Another key part of his work has been in engaging scientists in Asia to assist in developing local research and technical capacity for disease detection, prevention and control.
