Professor Joanne Webster

Professor Joanne P. Webster is the Royal Veterinary College’s Chair in Parasitic Diseases, Director of the Centre for Emerging, Endemic and Exotic Diseases (CEEED), Associate Director of the London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research (LCNTDR), and Professor of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London’s Faculty of Medicine.

After gaining a double First-class BSc hons, Joanne’s Doctoral (DPhil) research at the University of Oxford focused on the epidemiology of zoonotic disease within the UK, including initiating novel work on the impact of Toxoplasma gondii on host behaviour and its association with chronic disease across both humans and animals.  After a year working as a Clinical Scientist at the NHS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC), specialising in congenital syphilis amongst babies born in the UK, Joanne returned to the University of Oxford as a postdoctoral Fellow, EPA Cephalosporin Junior Research Fellow (JRF), Lecturer in Infectious Diseases and as a Royal Society University Research Fellow (URF).  During this period, Joanne expanded the scope of her work to encompass global health and tropical field research and disease control across much of Africa and Asia. Joanne accepted a Readership at Imperial College’s Faculty of Medicine in 2003 and was promoted to a tenured Professorial Chair in Infectious Diseases in 2006.  The key motivation for this move was the unique opportunity to be co-Director of the then newly formed Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI). In October 2014, Joanne joined the RVC to further expand her One Health research and disease control activities encompassing both human clinical and animal veterinary tropical medicine.

Joanne’s research and disease control activities have been awarded a number of high-profile prizes, medals and recognitions, including, but not exclusive to, the CA Wright Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Parasitology (2005) and Chalmers Memorial Medal to recognise Outstanding Contribution to Tropical Medicine (2013).