The ISPPD Board is pleased to announce Professor David Goldblatt as the Robert Austrian Lecturer for ISPPD-12.

David Goldblatt is Professor of Vaccinology and Immunology at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London (UCL) where he also holds the role of Deputy Director for NHS Engagement. He is a Consultant Paediatric Immunologist at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust where he is also Director of Clinical Research and Development. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, a PhD in Immunology from the University of London, United Kingdom and is a Fellow of both the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Royal College of Physicians. He is an Emeritus National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator.

He has a long-standing interest in the immune response to vaccines and infectious diseases. He has an active research programme exploring the immune response to bacterial carriage and infection, studying bacterial conjugate vaccines (especially S. Pneumoniae), understanding correlates of protection and assessing alternative vaccines schedules. His interest in functional immunity has led to the development of functional assays for evaluating immunity to bacterial candidate vaccines including Group A Streptococcus and Klebsiella Pneumoniae. He has established collaborations in many parts of the world with colleagues including those based in South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, The Gambia, India, Thailand, Cuba, Canada and the USA. More recently he has established a program evaluating humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 which includes a focus on developing correlates of protection to accelerate COVID19 vaccine licensure. He is an advisor to the World Health Organisation (WHO) on vaccines including COVID and is Director of the WHO Reference Laboratory for Pneumococcal Serology based at UCL. He serves on subcommittees of the United Kingdom Department of Health Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised the US FDA, EMA and MHRA on vaccine evaluation and the MHRA on COVID Vaccine licensure via membership of the Commission on Human Medicines COVID-19 Vaccines Benefit Risk Expert Working Group. He chairs several Scientific Advisory Boards including the International SAB advising the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme in Blantyre and the Immunisation HPRU at the London School of Hygiene. He is currently President of ISPPD.

The Robert Austrian Lecture will be delivered at ISPPD-12 in Toronto, Canada on Wednesday, 22 June 2022, from 17:05 in Grand Ballroom East.

PREVIOUS ISPPD LECTURERS INCLUDE:

• Helena Mäkelä †, 2002
• Brian Greenwood, 2004
• Mathu Santosham, 2006
• Alexander Tomasz, 2008
• Ron Dagan, 2010
• Keith Klugman, 2012
• Katherine O’Brien, 2014
• Marc Lipsitch, 2016
• Kim Mulholland, 2018

ROBERT AUSTRIAN LECTURER COMMITTEE: 2020-2022

• Keith Klugman, USA, Chair
• Ron Dagan, Israel
• Brian Greenwood, UK
• Marc Lipsitch, USA
• Kim Mulholland, Australia
• Katherine O’Brien, USA
• Mathuram Santosham, USA
• Alexander Tomasz, USA