Dr Richard Pebody is a public health epidemiologist and currently Director of Clinical and Emerging Infections at the UK Health Security Agency. He was previously the High Threat Pathogen lead at the WHO Regional Office for Europe from 2019-23, where he was responsible for leading work on epidemic and pandemic high threat infections such as influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and monkeypox. Prior to this role, Dr Pebody was head of the influenza team at the National Surveillance Centre in the UK from 2008-2019. He qualified in clinical medicine at Liverpool University; worked as a clinician in the UK and northern Australia with a focus on infectious diseases and then completed the EPIET programme in Finland.