'Preventing pandemics at the source – stopping spillover' with Prof Peter Hudson

Past Event

Date
 15 February 2023, 5:00pm - 6:15pm

Location
 Oxford Martin School & Online
34 Broad Street (corner of Holywell and Catte Streets), Oxford, OX1 3BD

Event Recording:

While many of those working on emerging diseases expected a pandemic like COVID, and in many ways this one could have been much worse, there is now increased concern about how to prevent the next one.

Once a novel infection starts spreading in humans it is almost impossible to prevent a pandemic, so Professor Peter Hudson, a disease ecologist, will talk about our understanding of viral spillover from bats, and what we really could do, to stop the next pandemic.

Peter Hudson

Professor Peter Hudson
Oxford Martin Visiting Fellow, Oxford Martin Programme on the Wildlife Trade

Peter Hudson is a disease ecologist who examines the impact of infectious diseases on wildlife populations. For the past 14 years he has been examining how infections move from one species to another and developing insights into how and why bats shed viruses that cause pandemics. He has shownn how parasites cause population cycles and developed and tested other concepts including Parasite Mediated Competition, the Dilution Effect and the Healthy Herds Hypothesis.

He is interested in training African women in global health and in 2018 was awarded The Humanitarian of the Year in recognition of this work. He built an educational field camp in Kenya and donated the business to the local Maasai community. He ran interdisciplinary science at The Huck institutes of the Life Sciences for 13 years and is co-founder of Random Good Foundation where he is currently involved in weaving film storylines that portray science and to make films with impact. At heart, Peter is a naturalist, keen conservationist, and biological photographer.