as made by

Professor Dr. Quarraisha Abdool Karim
Co-Chair | Virchow Prize Committee

Prof. Dr. Ole Petter Ottersen
Co-Chair | Virchow Prize Committee

On behalf of the Virchow Foundation and the Virchow Prize Committee, it is our great privilege to announce that the Virchow Prize 2026 is bestowed upon

JEAN-JACQUES MUYEMBE & PETER PIOT

“for their pioneering and enduring leadership in the discovery, control, and understanding of epidemic threats, and for advancing equitable, multilateral cooperation and governance that have fundamentally strengthened global preparedness and solidarity in the face of infectious disease outbreaks”

Today’s decision to award the Virchow Prize 2026 jointly to Jean‑Jacques Muyembe and Peter Piot honors not only two extraordinary individual scientists, but also a shared trajectory that has profoundly shaped the modern understanding of infectious disease and outbreak preparedness, global health governance, and the indispensable role of investments in strengthening international institutions and global solidarity. Their intertwined contributions span from the earliest encounter with one of the most feared pathogens of our time – the Ebola virus – to the evolution of global systems for epidemic response, prevention, and cooperation. In doing so, they embody the very spirit of Rudolf Virchow’s insight that health is inseparable from social organization, governance, and collective responsibility.

The careers of Muyembe and Piot are anchored in one of the defining moments of modern infectious disease history: the emergence of Ebola in 1976 – exactly 50 years ago. In the remote region of Yambuku in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Muyembe, working under conditions of profound scarcity, confronted a mysterious and deadly outbreak. Without protective equipment, laboratory infrastructure, or established protocols, he conducted field investigations, collected clinical samples, and sought to understand the nature of a rapidly spreading disease. His work laid the essential groundwork for identifying the pathogen and for developing initial strategies of containment[i]. At the same time, in Antwerp, Belgium, Piot and colleagues analyzed the samples sent from the field, contributing to the identification of a previously unknown virus and helping to shape the first scientific characterization of Ebola. Two weeks after arrival of the samples, Piot travelled to Yambuku and joined the local team of Muyembe undertaking field investigations on source and spread of the virus.

This moment was not simply one of scientific discovery; it was a powerful demonstration of the necessity of collaboration across contexts, disciplines, and geographies, highlighting our interconnectedness and shared vulnerability. The flow of knowledge – from rural Congo to European laboratories and back into the field – illustrated both the possibilities and the inequities inherent in global health partnerships. Over the decades, both Muyembe and Piot have worked, partly independent from each other in complementary ways, partly closely together, to transform that model into one rooted more firmly in equity, reciprocity, and shared leadership – and one unleashed from the colonial vestiges of the global governance system.

Jean-Jacques Muyembe chose to remain in his home country and build scientific capacity where it was most urgently needed. He played a decisive role in investigating numerous Ebola outbreaks over subsequent decades, advancing clinical understanding, refining strategies for patient care, and contributing to the development of novel therapies.Muyembe is the co-inventor of the monoclonal antibody mAb114, the first FDA-approved Ebola treatment.

Furthermore, Muyembe has made substantial contributions to building outbreak research and responses. He has set up a substantial surveillance, laboratory diagnostic and clinical infrastructure that continues to be at the forefront of outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and beyond, e.g. during the COVID-19 pandemic, recent Mpox outbreaks, and now with the new 2026 Ebola outbreak showing again its significant relevance.

These investments in national institution building, training and capacity development have ensured that future responses to epidemics in the DRC and the wider region would be led increasingly by local expertise. This includes Muyembe heading the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB), which has been a WHO Collaborating Centre since 2018, and serving as the inaugural President of the Congolese Academy of Science. His work challenges and successfully counters the historical marginalization of scientists from the Global South and exemplifies the importance of investing in enduring, locally anchored research and response systems.

Jean-Jacques Muyembe has been recognized by numerous international awards, including the Christophe Mérieux Prize, the Royal Society Africa Prize, the government of Japan’s Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize and, together with Peter Piot, the WHO Director-General’s Global Health Leaders Awards. He was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre National de Léopard of the DRC and an Honorary International Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH). Muyembe furthermore received the African Union CPHIA Lifetime Achievement Award in Public Health.

Peter Piot extended the lessons of Ebola into a broader rethinking of global health governance. His leadership in the response to HIV/AIDS and his guiding role as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Founding Executive Director of UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, marked a profound shift in how the world addresses complex, transnational health crises.

Piot has consistently emphasized that infectious diseases cannot be understood or controlled in isolation from the social, economic, and political environments in which they spread. And that is precisely the fundamental essence and very heart of Virchow’s legacy. By bringing together multiple agencies of the United Nations system and advocating for coordinated, multisectoral action, he has been instrumental in shaping a new model of global cooperation that recognizes that effective responses require not only science, but also solidarity, shared responsibility, and sustained political commitment – a systemic and holistic model which is now being put to the test in a way that has not been seen for a generation.

Piot is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Medicine of France, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium, and a fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal College of Physicians.

He is Chair of the Scientific Council of the Institut Pasteur de Dakar (Senegal) and of the Strategic Council of the Pasteur Network. Furthermore, he has been Vice-Chair of GHIT Fund, Tokyo (Japan), and a founding Board Member of CEPI and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Peter Piot has received numerous awards, among them the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award, Prince Mahidol Award, Robert Koch Gold Medal, Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize, Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights, and, together with Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the WHO Director-General’s Global Health Leaders Awards. He was ennobled a Baron by King Albert II of Belgium and Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George in the UK. Further honors include the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun in Japan.