Organisers and Sponsors

Noël Tordo is a virologist who has directed research units at Institut Pasteur in Paris and Lyon, National and WHO Centers for Arboviruses and Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers, as well as WOAH reference laboratories for RVFV and CCHFV. Since 2015, he is Director of the Pasteur Institute of Guinea.

Noël Tordo conducts fundamental, translational, and field research on emerging viral diseases based on the "One Health" concept, primarily rabies and other zoonoses (viral hemorrhagic fevers, etc.): pathogen circulation in animals and humans, virus/vector molecular co-adaptation, dynamics of species barrier crossing from animals to humans, development of prevention (vaccines) and therapies (antivirals)...

Noël Tordo is deeply involved in knowledge transfer, has co-organized virology courses as well as scientific meetings worldwide and the European Meeting on Viral Zoonosis is one of the classic ones, every 2nd year since 2001. Noël Tordo is the current President of the French Society for Virology.

Alain Kohl is Chair of Virology and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Liverpool School at Tropical Medicine, which he joined in 2023 from the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research where he was Professor of Arbovirology and MRC Programme Leader. He also serves on the Board of the Directors of the Luxembourg Institute of Health. His research interests are in arboviruses, and viruses of parasites, specifically on virus-host interactions.

Åke Lundkvist is a Swedish Professor in Virology, whom during the last 35 years has worked with viral zoonotic pathogens, including e.g. hantaviruses, flaviviruses, and coronaviruses. He defended his thesis on hantaviruses in 1993 and has at present more than 350 original publications. His research has been supported by Swedish research councils since the mid 1990-ies, and he has been the principal investigator in nine EU-granted projects on viral zoonoses. Prof. Lundkvist has supervised more than 30 doctoral and licentiate students to successful defences, guided 15 post-docs and one guest-professor, all working on zoonoses and the far majority on viral zoonoses. During the time-period 2004–2013, he was the laboratory head of the biosafety level 3 and 4 facilities at the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (today called the Public Health Agency of Sweden). In 2014, Prof. Lundkvist was appointed as full professor in virology at Uppsala University, Sweden, where he founded the Zoonosis Science Center. At present, the center has around 25 members working in fields such as virology, bacteriology, vector biology, ecology, epidemiology, and antibiotic resistance. Prof. Lundkvist is highly appreciated by his group members and friends. He also has a huge passion for classical cars and boats.

Tarja Sironen is Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She leads the Helsinki One Health network and her research group is based in two faculties, medicine and veterinary medicine. Her research focuses on drivers of disease emergence, from pathogen evolution to environmental changes and social drivers. Her main projects are implemented in Africa and focus around bat- and rodent-borne diseases. A key component is capacity building for microbial diagnostics and wildlife surveillance. 

Eili Huhtamo is a Finnish arbovirologist with a background in mosquito-borne virus research. Her research interests include detection and diagnostics of vector-borne viruses, zoonotic virus discovery and molecular epidemiology of vector-borne and zoonotic viruses. She is a principal investigator at University of Helsinki affiliated with faculties of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine and the Helsinki One Health network.

Essi Korhonen is a university researcher, PhD, and docent of virology at the University of Helsinki, with a visiting researcher position at the University of Nairobi. She is an active member of Helsinki One Health, and her research focus is on vector-borne pathogens and the impact of climate change on their emergence and incidence. Her work is centered on major projects in East Africa and the Arctic regions, where they investigate the shifting dynamics of infectious diseases in changing environments.

Olli Vapalahti (MD, PhD, Professor of zoonotic virology) works both at medical and veterinary faculties of University of Helsinki, Finland. He has over 450 PubMed publications mainly on arboviruses and zoonoses. He is also a specialist in clinical microbiology with clinical diagnostic responsibilities at Helsinki University Hospital laboratories with a unit for viral zoonoses. He is a member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters, and member of EVD-LabNet (Emerging Viral diseases Laboratory Network).