Alumni Angles: In conversation with Professor Sir Andrew Pollard
When: Wednesday, May 4, 2022 - Thursday, May 5, 2022, 6:15 PM - 7:30 PM
Where: Perrin Lecture Theatre, Blizard Building, Whitechapel campus, Whitechapel
Speaker: Professor Sir Andrew Pollard
A conversation with vaccine expert and alumnus, Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group
Join us for the third and first in-person installment of our ‘Alumni Angles’ event series, In conversation with Professor Sir Andrew Pollard on Wednesday 4 May 2022 at 6:15pm.
Alumnus Professor Sir Andrew Pollard FMedSci (Medicine MBBS, 1989) is Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, the team who were responsible for developing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for COVID-19. The vaccine received regulatory approval on 30 December 2020 and has since been rolled out globally.
During the evening, you will also hear from our President and Principal, Professor Colin Bailey CBE, our Vice-Principal (Health), Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, and our event chair, Dr Vanessa Apea, Consultant in Genito-urinary and HIV Medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust.
This event is open to online and in-person participants. Join us in the Perrin Lecture Theatre in the Blizard Building on our Whitechapel campus where Sir Andrew will be speaking to a live audience, followed by a reception. Alternatively, you can register to tune in online.
Meet our speaker
Professor Sir Andrew Pollard qualified from St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College in 1989. He is Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant Paediatrician at Oxford Children’s Hospital.
His research includes the design, development and clinical evaluation of vaccines in the UK, Asia, Africa and Latin America, including those for COVID-19, typhoid, meningococcus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcus, plague, pertussis, influenza, rabies, coronavirus and Ebola.
Sir Andrew was Chief Investigator for the clinical trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in 2020, which led to the authorisation of the vaccine for use in more than 175 countries with over 2.5 billion doses distributed by the end of 2021. In the Queen's Birthday Honours List 2021, he received a knighthood for services to public health, with special recognition of his work during the coronavirus pandemic.
Meet our chair
Dr Vanessa Apea is a Consultant in Genito-urinary and HIV Medicine and Clinical Lead for Sexual Health at Barts Health NHS Trust. She has been an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University of London since 2019.
Dr Apea is Clinical Co-lead of Amplifying Lives, a Barts Charity-funded community-based study into vaccine reluctance amongst Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities in east London. She is passionate about reducing inequalities in healthcare and has a particular research interest in participatory approaches and the intersection of race, gender and health. Dr Apea received an NHS 70 Windrush Award for her contribution to improving health equity in 2018.