29 July 2016
CoMO’s Scientific Advisory Group (CSAG) will have a new leader in Professor James Stuart, as Professor Robert Booy steps down as Chair.
Professor Booy has provided direction and leadership as Chair since 2011 through his guidance at CSAG meetings, influencing important decisions on behalf of CoMO and giving advice on scientific developments that affect our work in the fight against meningitis.
Professor Booy is an infectious diseases paediatrician, Head of Clinical Research at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) in Australia, and has been a Professor at the University of Sydney since 2005. He has also completed extensive research into the clinical, public-health, social and economic burden of diseases and the ways to prevent or control serious infections through vaccines, drugs and non-pharmaceutical measures. This extensive experience and expertise has been invaluable in his role as Chair and has provided CoMO with valuable scientific guidance.
Professor James Stuart has been an active member of CSAG since 2011, and will bring a new perspective to the role as Chair, with his extensive experience in the field of epidemiology. He has studied the epidemiology and control of meningococcal disease for 25 years both in the UK and in a number of other European countries, as well as working in Africa and Asia. In recent years James has assisted the World Health Organisation in outbreak response guidelines in the African Meningitis Belt and has been involved in a major research project into meningococcal carriage during the introduction of the ‘MenAfriVac’ vaccine. James has also published extensively on meningococcal infection in relation to transmission, vaccines, herd immunity, and the changing epidemiology of bacterial meningitis in the UK.
An honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, James also holds a visiting chair at the University of Bristol School of Social and Community Medicine. His passion for reducing the spread and impact of meningococcal infection and other infectious diseases will inspire a new chapter for CoMO and its CSAG. CoMO aims to provide up-to-date, accurate advice and guidance on the prevention, spread and impact of meningitis and septicaemia worldwide. We look forward to Professor Stuart’s input, which will enable CoMO to support its members and the public with expert scientific counsel.
On becoming the new Chair of CSAG, Professor James Stuart said, “I am honoured to be appointed as Chair of CoMO’s Scientific Advisory Group. I look forward to leading my colleagues in discussions around global developments in the fields of meningitis and septicaemia and to providing CoMO with an integral scientific perspective."
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