Dr Joachim Hombach
Dr Joachim Hombach is Acting Head of WHO's Initiative for Vaccine Research (IVR). In his former position at IVR, he was in charge of implementation research and the flavivirus vaccine portfolio, and has been working in particular on dengue and Japanese encephalitis vaccines.
Before joining WHO, Dr Hombach had a career in vaccine research and implementation policy, with a focus on vaccines for the developing world. In this context, he had assignments as Director of vaccine policy at GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals S.A., and as Scientific Officer with the European Commission. In the latter function, he was seminal in setting up the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership. He also served as board member of the European Malaria Vaccine Initiative.
Dr Hombach started his career as a researcher in molecular and cellular immunology, where he worked at the University of Zürich, Switzerland and the Max-Planck Institute for Immunology in Freiburg, Germany. He holds a PhD from the University of Cologne, Germany. He also holds a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States of America. Multiple peer-reviewed publications have emerged from his work.