JMedCBR Editorial Board
John P. Woodall, PhD
Brazil
John (Jack) Woodall is a graduate of Cambridge University, UK, and received his PhD from London University, UK. His career began in Africa as Scientist in Her Majesty’s Overseas Research Service, at the East African Virus Research Institute, Entebbe, Uganda. Subsequently he joined The Rockefeller Foundation as director of its Belem Virus Laboratory in Brazil. When the Foundation ended its association with its overseas virus laboratories, he became a Research Fellow at the Yale Arbovirus Research Unit in New Haven CT, and then head of the Arbovirus Laboratory, New York State Health Dept., Albany NY. Shortly after that he became a staff member of the U.S. Public Health Service and director of the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) San Juan Laboratories in Puerto Rico, which carried out research on dengue and schistosomiasis. In 1981 he moved to the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, first in the Laboratory Unit, and then as Epidemiologist in the Division of Health Statistics (later Division of Health Situation & Trend Assessment). He was a member of the WHO Gulf Emergency Task Force in support of the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) in Iraq, and Leader of the WHO delegation to the Third Review Conference on the Biological Weapons Convention, and to the Ad Hoc meetings of the Verex committee, both in Geneva. On retirement from WHO after 13 years, he returned to the Arbovirus Laboratory, New York State Health Dept., Albany, NY, as director. From 1998-2007 he has been visiting professor, Institute of Medical Biochemistry, and director, Nucleus for the Investigation of Emerging Infectious Diseases, at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He retired from that post in 2007.
He was a co-founder of ProMED-mail, the online outbreak early warning system of the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID), and Web Site Editor and Council member (ex officio), American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene. He is a member of the Biological Weapons Working Group of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Washington DC, and Board member, Sabin Vaccine Institute, Washington DC. He has been editor of various publications for WHO, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute & Sabin Vaccine Institute, is a reviewer for the Emerging Infectious Disease Journal, the Journal of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, and Virus Reviews & Research, and is presently a monthly columnist for The Scientist magazine.
His interests are arbovirus epidemiology, using the internet for rapid dissemination of disease outbreak information, and biodefense.