Punnee Pitisuttithum

Professor Punnee Pitisuttithum is Professor Emeritus of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University. She is working at the Department of Clinical Tropical Medicine and the Vaccine Trial Centre. She is an internationally recognized expert on tropical infectious diseases, especially on vaccine trials and clinical studies, with an h-index of 53. She has completed over 55 clinical trials and has more than 230 publications in international peer-reviewed journals, with 18,655 citations according to the Scopus database. She has designed and conducted numerous clinical studies (Phase I, II, and III vaccine trials) of tropical diseases and vaccines against HIV/AIDS as lead clinical investigator in the largest community trial of HIV vaccines (prime-boost regimen) involving 16,000 participants (RV144), which was the first trial to show vaccine efficacy in humans, HPV, influenza, Chikungunya, dengue, cholera, and other infectious diseases.

Professor Punnee Pitisuttithum has been appointed as Associate Fellow of the Academy of Science, The Royal Society of Thailand (2026) and received the ASTMH Distinguished International Fellow from the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (2025), a Fellow of the International Society for Vaccines (ISV). She currently serves as a member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization and the Advisory Group on Human Challenge Studies, WHO. She is also a member of several WHO expert working groups -Dengue, HPV, including the Influenza Research Agenda Review Group, the Preferred Product Characteristics for Next Generation Influenza Vaccines, and the Full Value of Improved Influenza Vaccine Assessment Technical Advisory Group.

 She also serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), a Taskforce Member in the development of a research and development (R&D) roadmap for influenza vaccines developed by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota. Previously, she had served as a member of the Initiative for Vaccine Research (IVR), WHO-UNAIDS Vaccine Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), and the Task Force on Research and Development during the establishment of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). She had also chaired and co-chaired numerous international conferences or reviewing committees.

She has received numerous honors and awards for her contributions to research, education, and public health. More recently, she was appointed She has also received the Mahidol University Top 1% Researcher (2023–2025), Mahidol University Researcher of the Year: Lifetime Achievement (2023), and the Dushdi Mala Medal Award for outstanding expertise in Medicine, from His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn (2020). Other notable honors include the Highly Cited Researcher from Clarivate Analytics, Web of Science (2018–2020), Moral Gems of Mahidol (Khon Dee Sri Mahidol) in 2019 from the Mahidol University Alumni Association under the Royal Patronage of His Majesty the King, the Most Outstanding Researcher in Medical Science in 2015 from the National Research Council of Thailand, as well as the Mahidol University Award for Outstanding Research in 2013.

She received her MBBS degree from Lady Hardinge Medical College, New Delhi, India. She has a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and a Diploma in Clinical Medicine, both from Mahidol University. She also holds a Diploma Thai Board of Internal Medicine from the Thai Medical Council.