Prof. Dr. Thirumalaisamy P. Velavan is a senior academic councilor at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and an expert in infectious disease research. He is founder and director of the Vietnamese-German Centre for Medical Research (www.vgcare.org) in Vietnam and coordinator of the global health hub ‘PAN ASEAN Coalition for Epidemic and OUtbreak Preparedness (PACE-UP)’, which aims to bring together multidisciplinary experts from the South-South region (Asia-Africa) to combat emerging and remerging infectious diseases.

Prof. Velavan has trained and mentored many younger generation scientists in low- and middle-income countries with a vision to increase, strengthen and sustain individual and institutional capacity in infectious disease clinical research. He is also the recipient of the 2021 Tropical Medicine Award of the German Society for Tropical Medicine and Global Health. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed publications with an h-index of 40.

Prof. Velavan is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board and the Review Panel of the German Federal Ministry of Health (GHPP-BMG), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), UNESCO-The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and the National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) Vietnam. He is also an editor on the editorial board of Nature Scientific Reports, Tropical Medicine and International Health, BMC Medical Genomics and Pathogen’s Journal.