David L. Heymann is a distinguished fellow in the Global Health programme, Chatham House, and a professor of infectious disease epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is also an elected fellow of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (US) and the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK), and has been awarded several public health awards that have provided funding for the establishment of an ongoing mentorship programme at the International Association of Public Health Institutes (IANPHI).
Previously he was the World Health Organization's assistant director-general for health security and environment, and representative of the director-general for polio eradication. From 1998 to 2003 he was executive director of the WHO Communicable Diseases Cluster, during which he headed the global response to SARS, and prior to that was director for the WHO programme on emerging and other communicable diseases.
In 2009 he was appointed an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for service to global public health. He has also been awarded the 2004 American Public Health Association Award for Excellence, the 2005 Donald Mackay Award from the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the 2007 Heinz Award on the Human Condition.
