Jeremy Farrar
Assistant Director-General, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Care.

Jeremy is the Assistant Director-General, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Care at the World Health Organisation.

Jeremy is a clinician scientist who before joining the WHO was Director/CEO of the Wellcome Trust 2013-2023. Between 1996-2013 he was Director of the Clinical Research Unit Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City Viet Nam. Professor Farrar trained in neurology and infectious diseases in Oxford, London, San Francisco and Melbourne. He has a PhD in Immunology from the University of Oxford and over 600 publications. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences UK, the National Academies USA, the European Molecular Biology Organization and a Fellow of The Royal Society.  

He was awarded the Memorial Medal and Ho Chi Minh City Medal in Viet Nam and in 2018 the President Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian of the Year.  He was named in the Fortune list of 50 World’s Greatest Leaders in 2015, included in the Politico’s Class of 2022 most influential people in Europe. Jeremy was knighted in the Queen’s 2018 New Year Honours for services to Global Health, the Public Service Medal Government of Singapore 2021 and was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun and Gold Ray Neck Ribbon in 2020 from the Japanese government in the name of the Emperor of Japan for contributions to global health. In 2022 Jeremy was named in the Politico 28 Class of 2022 most influential people in Europe and in 2024 Jeremy was named in the Time100 list of 100 most influential leaders in health.