Member of the Royal Irish Academy and Emeritus Professor at Queen’s University Belfast  

Specialization: Molecular biology, Infectious diseases

Born in the Netherlands and educated at Delft University of Technology (Netherlands) and McMaster University (Canada), his career took him to Queen’s, where he was appointed Professor of Molecular Biology in 1993. Using molecular biological and genetic techniques he has studied the molecular virology of paramyxoviruses and infectious diseases caused by them, especially mumps and measles virus and animal viruses such as rinderpest, canine and phocine distemper viruses. His work centered on virus evolution and persistent infection, as wells as introducing genetic modifications of these human pathogenic viruses and the evaluation of their effects in animal model systems including ferrets and macaques. He retired in 2011.

He has published a book, over 180 refereed papers and invited reviews and over 100 conference papers. He has been member of numerous grants panels in Ireland, the UK and Europe, visiting groups, advisory panels and government advisory committees. He is active in policy advice work through having been a member of European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) working groups on Gain of Function Research and Genome Editing and he currently co-chairs the EASAC Bioscience Steering Panel. He has been a member of the IAP Biosecurity panel since 2020.