Professor Elizabeth H. Blackburn, a Nobel Laureate, is currently Professor Emerita at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Throughout her long career in science she has been a leader in the area of telomere and telomerase research, having discovered the molecular nature of telomeres – the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes that serve as protective caps essential for preserving the genetic information – and co-discovered the ribonucleoprotein enzyme, telomerase.

As Professor Emerita in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Professor Blackburn and her UCSF research team continue their work with various cells (including human cells), with the goal of understanding telomerase and telomere biology. She and her research team also collaborate in a wide range of investigations of the roles of telomere biology in human health and diseases, through clinical and other human studies.

Born in Australia, Professor Blackburn earned her B.Sc. (1970) and M.Sc. (1972) degrees from the University of Melbourne, and her Ph.D. (1975) from the University of Cambridge in England. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at Yale University from 1975 to 1977.

In 1978, Professor Blackburn joined the faculty at the University of California Berkeley (UCB), in the Department of Molecular Biology. In 1990, she joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UCSF, where she served as Department Chair from 1993 to 1999. She was also appointed a faculty member in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF.

Professor Blackburn has won many prestigious awards throughout her career. In 2009, Professor Blackburn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She received the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award for Basic Medical Research in 2006, and in 2007 was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. In 2008 she was the North American Laureate for L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991) and the Royal Society of London (1992), a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1993) and a Member of the Institute of Medicine (2000). She was elected the 1998 President of the American Society for Cell Biology and the 2010- 2011 President of the American Association for Cancer Research. She served on the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2002 to 2004, and has been awarded honorary degrees by 11 Universities.

Academic and Professional Career

• since 2021: Chairman of the Board of Trustees, World Health Summit
• 2010: Guest Professorship, Collège de France, Paris, France
• since 2009: Founding President World Health Summit and Chairman of Board of Trustees of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces and Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Germany
• since 2005: Honorary Chairman of the Board, Charité Foundation, Germany
• 2004‐2008: Chief Executive Officer, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
• 2002-2007: National Ethics Council
• 1997-2001: President, Helmholtz Association of National Research Centers
• 1997-1998: President, Deutsche Gesellschaft der Naturforscher und Ärzte (GDNÄ)
• 1992-2008: Professor for Clinical Pharmacology, Free University of Berlin
• 1991‐2004: Founding Director, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany
• 1975-1991: Professor for Pharmacology and Experimental Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Germany
• 1973: Ph.D., McGill University, Montreal, Canada
• 1969‐1973: Research Fellow, Clinical Research Institute, Université de Montreal, Canada
• 1968: M.D. degree, University of Tübingen, Germany

Project coordination, Membership in collaborative research projects (Selection)

Madam Monica Geingos, First Lady of the Republic of Namibia is a qualified lawyer with extensive experience in the financial and private equity sector. She is the First Lady of Namibia since 2015 and her office focuses on public health, entrepreneurship, youth development and gender-based violence. The First Lady serves on several international committees and is a UNAIDS Special Advocate for Young Women and Adolescent Girls.

Activities & Positions

• Since 2023: Member of the High-Level Council | Global Surgery Foundation
• Since 2023: Deputy Chairman | German-African Business Association (Afrika-Verein)
• Since 2022: Member of the Steering Committee & Coordination Committee | One Europe for Global Health
• Since 2022: Member of the Board of Trustees | World Health Summit
• Since 2022: Member of the Advisory Board | Institute for Research in International Assistance (IRIA), Akkon University of Applied Sciences for Human Sciences
• 2021-2022: EU Climate Pact Ambassador
• Since 2020: Member of the Board of Trustees | Neurological Rehabilitation Centre NRZ Godeshöhe Bonn
• Since 2019: Founding Member of the Advisory Group | Health Innovation Exchange (HIEx), established by UNAIDS
• Since 2019: Member of the Board | BDI Committee for Industrial Health Economy
• Since 2019: Member of the Strategic Board | BDI Initiative Digital Health
• 2019-2022: Member of the Steering Committee | Global Health Hub Germany
• 2018-2023: Chair | Private Sector Advisory Board of GIZ – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
• Since 2017: Permanent Guest of the BDI Presidential Board
• 2017-2023: Member | World Health Summit Council
• 2016: Initiator of the German Global Health Award, granted for the first time in 2017
• Since 2014: Chairman of the Board | GHA – German Health Alliance, with its pillar in health system strengthening established jointly by the German government through the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Federation of German Industries (BDI)
• Since 2014: Member of the Board | German-African Business Association (Afrika-Verein)
• Since 2014: Senior Managing Director | Sysmex Partec GmbH
• 2014: Main initiator of the “German-African Healthcare Forum” and of the multisectoral “Action Group on Ebola”
• 2012-2016: Founding Member | Saxon Future Commission for Biotechnology & Life Sciences
• 2012-2014: Founding Member | Advisory Board of the Coordinating Agency for the Free State of Saxony Healthcare Sector
• 2009-2016: Founding Chairman of the Board | biosaxony – Free State of Saxony Biotechnology & Life Sciences Association
• 2000-2014: Managing Partner | Partec, Görlitz
• 2006-2014: Director Essential Healthcare | Partec, Münster
• 2000-2006: HIV/AIDS Project Coordinator | Partec, Münster

Further Activities
In 2012, Roland Göhde co-founded the non-profit Göhde Foundation with a specific focus in Africa on essential healthcare, water supply, education and electricity supply, since 2017 with a second area of activities in classical music, especially in the context of supporting children as well as top young talents.

Awards
Besides other awards, Roland Göhde received the Innovation Award of the Free State of Saxony in 2003 and the IQ Innovation Award of Central Germany in 2007. At the “1st German Congress of World Market Leaders” in 2011, he was honored with the Young Entrepreneurs Award, granted for the first time by Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG. For his commitment and merits for the biotechnology sector in the Free State of Saxony, Göhde received the “Biosaxony Award” in 2019.

Since 1994, Hermann Gröhe is a member of the German Bundestag, currently acting as Vice Chairman of the CDU/CSU group for economic cooperation and development as well as labour and social policy. From 2013 to 2018, Mr. Gröhe was the Federal Minister of Health, giving Global Health issues a great priority in his work. A lawyer by profession, Hermann Gröhe is a faithful protestant and member of the National Synod of the Protestant Church of Germany (EKD).

Politics

• since 2018 Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU-Parliamentary Group and commissioner for churches and religious communities
• since 2014 Member of the CDU Federal Executive Board
• 2013-2018 Federal Minister of Health
• 2009-2013 Secretary General of the CDU
• 2008-2009 Minister of State at the Federal Chancellery, responsible for the coordination between states and federal government, deregulation and parliamentary relations
• 2005-2008 Legal Advisor of the CDU/CSU-Parliamentary Group, Spokesman of the CDU/CSU-Parliamentary Group on the first fact-finding committee, Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
• 2001-2009 Chairman of the CDU Rhein-Kreis Neuss
• 1998-2005 Spokesman on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid of the CDU/CSU-Parliamentary Group
• 1994-1998 Spokesman of the “Young group” in the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group
• since 1994 Member of the Deutscher Bundestag
• 1993-1994 Member of the CDU programme commission
• 1991-1993 Member of the County Council Neuss
• 1989-1994 Chairman of the national Junge Union Germany
• 1984-1989 Member of the County Council Neuss
• 1983-1989 County chairman of the Junge Union Neuss
• since 1977 Member of the CDU

Education and professional experience

• since 1994 Licensed lawyer
• 1993 Second State Examination
• 1991-1993 Trainee lawyer at the District Court Cologne
• 1987-1993 Research assistant at the department of Political Philosophy and Legal Policy at the University of Cologne
• 1987 First State Examination
• 1980-1987 Law school at the University of Cologne

Social commitment

• since 2021 Member of the Board of the Deutsche Nationalstiftung (German National Foundation
• since 2018 Deputy Chairman of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation
• since 2001 Member of the Board of Directors of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation
• 2000-2008 Chairman of the “Diakonisches Werk” in Neuss, the relief organization of the EKD
• since 1997 Member of the National Synod of the EKD
• 1997-2009 Member of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD)

Beate Kampmann studied medicine in Cologne. She specialized in the field of infectious diseases and completed advanced training in pediatric and infectious disease medicine at the Royal College of Physicians in London in the early 1990s. This was followed by research stays in the United States, France, and South Africa, which eventually led her to Imperial College London.

The clinician-scientist was named a Wellcome Trust Training Fellow in Clinical Tropical Medicine and later became a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow.

In 2000, she obtained her postgraduate lecturing qualification with a PhD thesis on the human immune response to the TB pathogen.

In mid-2010, Prof. Kampmann was appointed as Theme Leader for Vaccines & Immunity research at the MRC Unit The Gambia. As part of this role, she directs a comprehensive research program on pediatric infection and immunity in both the UK and Africa.

In 2015, she was awarded the President’s Medal for Excellence in Research Supervision at Imperial College London.

In 2018, after more than 25 years of service, Prof. Kampmann moved from Imperial College to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where she became Professor in Pediatric Infection & Immunity and Director of The Vaccine Center.

In 2020, she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the British equivalent of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and was inducted as a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians. She remained an active member of the Imperial College’s pediatric consultant team during this time.

She has led numerous projects funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Research and Innovation, the European Union, the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, and the Wellcome Trust. Prof. Kampmann’s main areas of research are childhood TB, HIV co-infection, and vaccinology. She and her team conduct laboratory and clinical studies to understand age-related immune responses to infection and vaccination.

Over the last few years, she has led a number of studies in both UK and West Africa investigating the scientific and implementation challenges of maternal immunization. She is the Director of IMPRINT– the IMmunizing PRegnant women and INfants network, one of the 5 MRC-funded networks for vaccines – and is one of the organizers of the International Neonatal and Maternal Immunization Symposium (INMIS).

On January 1, 2023, Prof. Kampmann took up a tenured W3 Professorship for Global Health at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and will head Charité’s Institute of International Health. She will also assume the scientific leadership of the newly created Charité Center for Global Health together with Prof. Christian Drosten, who heads Charité’s Institute of Virology.

Member of the Portuguese Parliament, Medical Doctor trained in infectious diseases and Head of Public Health at Católica University of Portugal.

Under the auspices of UNAIDS, Ricardo is the Founder and President of ‘UNITE – Parliamentarians Network to End Infectious Diseases’, a global platform of policy makers.

Awarded by ‘The Economist Intelligence Unit’ as a ‘HCV Change Maker’ (2016). This acknowledgment, attributed to solely six people globally, came in due recognition of Ricardo’s academic work and policy leadership in the field of hepatitis c.

Member of the Portuguese Parliament, currently on a 2nd term (2011-Present), serving as a permanent member of the Parliamentary Health Committee and of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee and having served as Vice-President of the Foreign Affairs Committee, permanent member of the Parliamentary group on Population and Development, Chair of the all-party Parliamentary HIV/AIDS workgroup and President of the Portuguese-Canadian Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Head of Public Health at the Institute of Health Sciences of Católica University of Portugal. Guest Lecturer at NOVA Medical School (Infectious Diseases and Microbiology) and at NOVA Information Management School (Coordinator of Sustainable Healthcare Unit), both at NOVA University. Senior Fellow at New Westminster College (BC, Canada) and PhD candidate in Public Health and Health Systems at Maastricht University (The Netherlands). Elected member of the supervisory board of the National Genetic Database Protection Agency. A decade of experience in health technology as a medical consultant at Glintt Healthcare Solutions (2009-2016), a multinational software house.

From 2015 to 2017, Deputy Mayor and City Councillor of Cascais, responsible for local health policy, academic partnerships, international relations (including economic diplomacy), youth (including Cascais European Youth Capital 2018) and employment policies.

In the past, practicing physician during 7 years, including a 5-year Infectious Diseases residency program at the Western Lisbon Hospital Centre. Intern in public health (HIV, Hepatitis and STI’s) as a formal collaborator of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, based in Copenhagen (2011).

Post-graduate studies in many universities in Europe and abroad, among which are Johns Hopkins University (MD, USA), Harvard Medical School (MA, USA), Harvard Kennedy School of Government/IESE (Madrid, Spain), Albert Einstein College of Medicine (NY, USA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain) and AESE Business School (Lisbon, Portugal).

Volunteer work related with health and development organizations, such as being member of the Centre for Health and Development International Advisory Board (Mangalore, India), member of the Hepatitis B and C Public Policy Association (Brussels, Belgium), among many other affiliations with Patient Associations. Fellow of the Millennium Fellowship at The Atlantic Council and of the Marshall Memorial Fellowship at the German Marshall Fund. Member of the European Leadership Network (www.europeanleadershipnetwork.org), European Young Leaders (Friends of Europe | Europanova), European Young Leaders Forum (BMW Foundation), Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy Network (ELEEP | The Atlantic Council), Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs). Fellow at the ZEIT Stiftung – Fundação Gertúlio Vargas 2015 Latin American Forum on Global Governance and member of the ZEIT Stiftung alumni. Member of the Antigua Forum alumni at Universidad Francisco Marroquín (Guatemala).

Founder of CREATING HEALTH – Research and Innovation funding, a sustainable non-profit which has been set up within the Catholic University of Portugal to help capture funding for health innovation and research projects (http://creatinghealth.ics.lisboa.ucp.pt).

Co-founder of the Estoril Conferences, which are focused on the issue of globalization under the motto Global Challenges, Local Answers (www.estorilconferences.com).

Main author of the book “Citizenship for Health” (PT, 2015), which is focused on the role of Citizens in health promotion and disease prevention, and of the book “Strategic Consensus on Integrated Management of Hepatitis C in Portugal” (PT, 2014), among other publications.

Academic and Professional Career

• Since 2020 President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
• 2012-2018 Vice-President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
• 2003-2015 Secretary of the Class of Humanities of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (former Prussian Academy of Sciences)
• 2013 Senior Fellow Martin Buber Society Hebrew University, Jerusalem
• 2010 Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study Princeton
• 2009/2010 Stewart Visiting Research Scholar in the Humanities Council, Programm of Jewish Studies, University of Princeton
• 2008/2009, 2013 and 2019 Visiting Fellow, Trinity College, Oxford
• since 2004 Chair of Church History (Ancient Christianity) at the Humboldt University of Berlin
• 2000-2004 Chair of Church History at the Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg
• 1999/2000, 2005/2006 and 2016/2017 Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem
• 1998/1999 Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Institute for Advanced Study
• 1994-2000 Chair of Church History at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

(Corresponding/Foreign) Member of the:

• European Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Academia Europea
• Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
• German Archeological Institute
• Academia Ambrosiana Milan
• Heidelberger Academy of Science
• Mainzer Academy of Science and Literature

Previous functions in scientific committees

• 2017 Federal Cross of Merit (1st Class)
• 2016 Director of Chronoi – Einstein Research Enter Chronoi (on Time and Awareness of Time in Ancient Societies), Berlin
• 2014 Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation

Honours and Awarded Memberships

• 2017 doctor honoris causa of the Pontifical Lateran University – Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum
• 2011 doctor honoris causa of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oslo
• 2010 Salzburg University Prize
• 2007 doctor honoris causa of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of Lucian- Blaga-University Sibiu/Hermannstadt
• 2001 Leibniz-Award of the German National Research Council
• 1995 Hanns-Lilje-Award of the Goettingen Academy of Sciences
• 1980 State’s President’s Price for Young Historians

Dr Miriam Orcutt (MBBS, MSc) is a Senior Research Fellow in Global Public Health and Forced Migration at the Institute for Global Health, University College London, and Executive Director of Lancet Migration: global collaboration to advance migration health.

Her main areas of academic and policy interest are: global health policy and governance and migration, health system and medical-humanitarian resilience and response to migration, forced migration and health, structural and political determinants of health for migrants.

Miriam has a particular interest in the effective translation of research into policy and practice. She has extensive experience working with NGOs and multilateral organisations; such as: Médecins sans Frontières (2018 and 2019), the World Health Organisation (regular consultancies 2017-2019), the Syrian American Medical Society (fieldwork 2016), DevTech (fieldwork 2012); and experience leading or contributing to research reports and policy briefings for WHO (2017-19), World Bank (2017), Terre des Hommes (2015), among others.

Fieldwork experience in: Nepal, India, Zambia, South Africa, Bolivia, Argentina; and in migration contexts in: Lebanon, Egypt, Greece, Serbia, Belgium, Italy.

Contributed to or made interventions at the following global policy processes as a civil society representative: the Global Compact for Migration global stakeholder consultations in: New York, May 2017 and Geneva, July 2017; Global Compact for Migration high-level member state meeting in Morocco, 2018; WHO Global Action Plan to improve the health of migrants and refugees: expert consultation meeting, Geneva, 2019; World Health Assembly, Side Event on Universal Health Coverage and Migration, May 2019; United Nations high-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage, New York, 2019.

Miriam previously worked as a medical doctor in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), on the Academic Clinical Foundation Programme in Epidemiology and Global Public Health, in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. She holds an MSc in Medical Anthropology with Distinction from Durham University and is a doctoral candidate on health system response to forcibly displaced populations.

She has published academic articles in the field of migration and health as relates to global public health and health policy in peer-reviewed journals, such as The Lancet and The British Medical Journal, and was one of the lead authors of ‘The UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health’ (published in the Lancet in December 2018).

Miriam has over five years of humanitarian consultancy and project management experience, including with The Lancet, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank, and is skilled in leading research projects and policy work. In 2018 she was named a Canadian Woman Leader in Global Health, on the inaugural list by The Lancet.

Dr h.c. Friede Springer is the Vice Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of Axel Springer SE and holds the chairmanship of her two foundations:

The Friede Springer Foundation promotes scientific, medical, artistic and cultural projects.

The Axel Springer Foundation supports exclusively and directly scientific, non-profit and charitable purposes. The focus is on German-Jewish historical research and on German-Israeli relations.

Friede Springer has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Axel Springer SE since 1985 and its Vice Chairwoman since 1999.

In 1996, Friede Springer was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Christiane Woopen is a Heinrich Hertz Professor of “Life Ethics – Individuals, Institutions and Societies” at the University of Bonn and Founding Director of the Centre for Life Ethics since October 2021.

Previously, she was Professor of Ethics and Theory of Medicine at the University of Cologne, where she was Founding Director of the interfaculty Cologne Centre for Ethics, Rights, Economics, and Social Sciences of Health (ceres).

In addition to leading national and international research projects, she is involved in policy advocacy, including:

• 2012-2016 Chair of the German Ethics Council
• 2014-2016 President of the Global Summit of National Ethics Councils
• 2017 Member of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee
• 2018-2019 Co-Spokesperson of the German Government Data Ethics Council
• 2017-2021 Chair of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE)

Membership in Scientific Academies
North Rhine-Westphalia Academy for Sciences and Arts
Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences
Academia Europaea

Awards
Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class

Academic & Work Experience

• seit 09/2019: Vorstandsvorsitzender der Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• 2012 – 08/2019: Vorstand Forschung und Lehre, Dekan der Medizinischen Fakultät und Sprecher des Vorstands der Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
• 2012: W3-Professor für Pharmakologie und Personalisierte Medizin an der Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
• 2000 – 2012: Dekan der Medizinischen Fakultät der Ernst Moritz Arndt-Universität Greifswald und Mitglied des Klinikumsvorstands
• 1998 – 2012: Professor für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie an der Ernst Moritz Arndt-Universität Greifswald
• 1998: C3-Professor für Klinische Pharmazie an der Universität Bonn
• 1998: Ruf auf die C3-Professur für Experimentelle Pädiatrische Onkologie an der Universität Münster (abgelehnt)
• 1992: Habilitation für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie an der Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
• 1989-1998: Senior Postdoc am Dr. Margarete Fischer-Institut / Robert-Bosch- Krankenhaus in Stuttgart
• 1987-1989: Forschungsaufenthalt im Biozentrum der Universität Basel und zweijährige Postdoc-Zeit in der Division of Clinical Pharmacology der Vanderbilt University in Nashville/USA
• 1987: Kurzstipendium der Paul-Martini-Stiftung für einen Forschungsaufenthalt am Biozentrum der Universität Basel
• 1986: Prüfung zum Dr. rer. nat. an der Technischen Universität Braunschweig
• 1983-1986: Promotion am Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch-Institut für Klinische Pharmakologie / Robert-Bosch-Krankenhaus zum Dr. rer. nat. in Stuttgart
• 1978-1983: Studium der Pharmazie an der Technischen Universität Braunschweig
• 1978: Abitur am Gymnasium Ulricianum in Aurich/Ostfriesland

Functions in Scientific Societies and Institutions

• seit 2018: Mitglied der Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften
• seit 2012: Mitglied im Senatssauschuss für Sonderforschungsbereiche der DFG
• seit 2012: Präsident des MFT
• 2009 – 2012: Vizepräsident des MFT
• 2007 – 2009: Vorstandsmitglied der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Kardiologie – Herz- und Kreislaufforschung
• seit 2007: Präsidiumsmitglied des Medizinischen Fakultätentages (MFT)
• 2004 – 2012: Kollegiat der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

Membership in Advisory Boards and Supervisory Boards

• Mitglied im Aufsichtsrat des Universitätsklinikums Frankfurt
• seit 2009: Mitglied im Wissenschaftlichen Beirat des IZKF am Universitätsklinikum in Münster
• seit 2006: Mitglied im Wissenschaftlichen Beirat der Bundesapothekerkammer
• 2005-2009: Aufsichtsrat der Riemser Arzneimittel AG, Greifswald

Awards

• 1993 Paul-Martini-Preis