Presenters' biography


Speaker 1 - Dr Maël Bessaud, Institut Pasteur, France

As a researcher at the Institut Pasteur, Maël BESSAUD heads one of the WHO Global Polio Laboratory Network’s reference laboratories. His work involves polio surveillance in France and multiple African countries. His research focuses on the evolution and host adaptation of enteroviruses.

Speaker 2 - Dr Luca Freschi, ECDC, Sweden

Luca Freschi is a Principal Expert in Microbiology and Molecular Epidemiology at ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control). He is responsible for promoting the implementation of molecular surveillance as a key component of integrated infectious disease surveillance across the diseases within ECDC's mandate. He has also contributed to the development of ECDC's genomic surveillance strategy for polio.

Speaker 3 - Dr Silvia Funke, ECDC, Sweden

Silvia Funke is an epidemiologist with extensive experience in infectious disease surveillance, outbreak response, and public health research. She is currently an expert on vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) at the ECDC, where she leads response activities for VPDs and serves as the focal point for polio. Prior to joining ECDC, Silvia worked with the WHO and MSF, supporting infectious disease surveillance, outbreak preparedness, and emergency responses to outbreaks, including polio. Her work spans global health emergencies and immunization programmes, with a focus on strengthening public health preparedness and response.

Speaker 4 - Dr Alexander Shaw, Imperial College London, UK

Alex is an Advanced Research Fellow whose work focuses on the detection of viruses and bacteria from stool and environmental samples. He works within the Vaccine Epidemiology Research Group (VERG) in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology. The primary goal of his work is the detection and typing of human pathogens through next generation sequencing to rapidly provide data to inform public health responses. Alex is optimising these methods for the cost-effective detection of multiple pathogens from wastewater, with the work supported by a Gate's Foundation grant. The Direct molecular Detection and Nanopore Sequencing (DDNS) method that Alex has previously developed for the detection of poliovirus is being trialled in WHO national poliovirus laboratories with the aim of wider adoption. Alex lectures on genomics and laboratory methods, and frequently runs workshops for genomic sequencing.

Speaker 5 - Dr Darlan De Silva Candido, Imperial College London, UK

Darlan da Silva Cândido is a Research Fellow in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, supported by a Wellcome Early-Career Award. His research focuses on the integration of epidemiological, genomic, and evolutionary data to understand the spread, transmission dynamics, and evolution of viral pathogens. Darlan has worked across several pathogens, including arboviruses, SARS-CoV-2, and polioviruses, with a particular interest in applying genomic epidemiology and phylogeographic methods to understand epidemic spread and inform public health responses. He is currently based in the Vaccine Epidemiology Research Group, applying mathematical modelling, phylogenetics, and phylogeographic approaches to investigate the transmission dynamics of vaccine-derived polioviruses across Africa.


Speaker 6 - Dr Sindy Böttcher, Robert Koch Institute, Germany

As a virologist, Sindy Böttcher co-leads the National Reference Center for Poliomyelitis and Enteroviruses at the Robert Koch-Institute. Her work includes improving diagnostic methods as well as molecular epidemiology of enteroviruses. During the last years she focused on implementing a sensitive workflow for poliovirus testing in wastewater samples and thereby contributing to the Global polio eradication program. 

Speaker 7 - Dr Cornelius Rau, Robert Koch Institute, Germany

Dr. Cornelius Rau is a dedicated global health practitioner and immunization expert with extensive experience in global immunization programs, outbreak response, immunization coverage monitoring, vaccinology, and clinical pediatrics. He currently leads the Vaccine-Preventable Disease (VPD) Surveillance and Immunization Coverage Monitoring Team at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin, Germany, where he integrates infectious disease epidemiology, public health surveillance, and medical anthropology to monitor immunization performance and estimate the burden of VPDs. As a board-certified pediatrician, epidemiologist, and anthropologist, he is passionate about modeling, preventing, detecting, and responding to outbreaks and using data to boost global immunization.

Speaker 8 - Dr Corey Peak, Gates Foundation, USA

Dr Corey Peak is Senior Program Officer for Polio Modeling and Analytics at the Gates Foundation. He holds doctorate and masters degrees in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and completed post-doctoral training with the US CDC in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS). He joined the Gates Foundation in 2019 and works closely with academic, governmental, and other partners to design, scale, and optimize new technologies and strategies for polio eradication, with a special emphasis on novel vaccines and surveillance methodologies. In his free time, he enjoys training for triathlons and otherwise exploring the Pacific Northwest with his wife and two young children.

Speaker 9 - Dr Kathleen Rankin, Gates Foundation, USA

Kathleen Rankin is a Senior Program Officer at the Gates Foundation on the Polio program’s Outbreaks team, which works to improve polio outbreak response with the goal of achieving global eradication.​ She focuses on enhancing laboratory functions for polio in the African region, including genomic sequencing and faster detection methods. Before joining the polio team in 2019, Kathleen worked on malaria operational research for both the Gates Foundation and the President’s Malaria Initiative at USAID.​ She transitioned into public health implementation work as a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at USAID. 
Kathleen earned her Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington.

Speaker 10 - Ms Kaija Hawes, Gates Foundation, USA

Kaija Hawes works at the Gates Foundation on polio eradication with a focus on vaccine strategy, policy, and management. She collaborates across scientific, technical, and program teams to translate evidence into programmatic decisions.

Last modified: Monday, 20 July 2026, 2:51 PM