Dr Michael Sulzner, Austria

Michael Sulzner is currently serving as a policy officer in the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) of the European Commission, based in Luxembourg. Michael holds a Master and PhD (Microbiology) of the University of Vienna and a PGD in European Law and LLM in Public International Law of the University of London. Michael also earned certificates of courses of the Modular Training Programme in Applied Toxicology of the University of Surrey, Guildford (UK).

Since 2013 he has been working within the Public Health Directorate of DG SANTE where he is in charge of EU policy development in the area of vaccination.  

From 2010-2013 he worked as a Seconded National Expert with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on international relations and stakeholder dialogue.

He is a permanent official of the Austrian Ministry of Health where he served for more than 15 years in different areas of food safety.

Professor Elizabeth Saunders, Netherlands

Lieke (Elisabeth A.M.) Sanders (1959) is a paediatrician and professor in Immunology and Infectious Diseases.

From 1993 onwards, she worked as clinician-immunologist at the University Hospital for Children in Utrecht treating patients with primary immunodeficiency disease and recurrent infections.

From 2009-2014, she was Director of Research and Education of the University Hospital for Children. In December 2014, she took up a position as Chief Scientific Officer at the Public Health Institute, (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, RIVM) with special attention for the themes of immunology, vaccinology and infectious diseases.

Next to this position, she works as a professor at the University Medical Center Utrecht. Lieke Sanders has authored >300 peer-reviewed international publications (H-index 50 [scopus]), >9.000 citations (Research Gate)). She has a long-standing interest in the immunology and epidemiology of vaccine-preventable diseases, efficacy, effectiveness and impact of vaccinations, with a special focus on pneumococcal vaccinations.

Other topics in her research are the prevention of respiratory tract infections and the role of the respiratory microbiome in health and disease. She has supervised 39 PhD students.

Among others, she has been a member of the Dutch National Health Council. Recently, she participated in the WHO SAGE working group on pneumococcal conjugate vaccinations.

Professor David Salisbury CB, FRCP FRCPCH FFPH FMEDSCI  

Associate Fellow, Centre on Global Health Security, Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, UK

Professor David Salisbury was Director of Immunisation at the Department of Health, London, until 2014; he was responsible for the UK national immunisation programme. During that time, he introduced numerous new vaccines, dealt with the MMR autism crisis and advised other governments and international organisations. Professor Salisbury was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, 2001, for his services to immunisation.

Professor Salisbury trained as a paediatrician at Oxford and at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He has an honorary Chair at Imperial College, London and is an Associate Fellow at the Centre on Global Health Security, Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London.

He is Chair of the Board of the Jenner Vaccine Foundation and was inaugural President of the International Association of Immunisation Managers. Professor Salisbury continues to work extensively with the World Health Organization on the Global Programme for Vaccines. He was the Chair of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Vaccines from 2005 to 2010. He is Chair of the WHO Global Commission for Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication and Chair of the WHO European Region Certification Commission for Poliomyelitis Eradication.

He serves on advisory boards for four EC-funded vaccine research projects. He has also had extensive experience in Global Health Security having co-chaired a G7 working group on Pandemic Influenza for nine years. Current work includes the impact of vaccines in the avoidance of antimicrobial resistance. Professor Salisbury has written over 100 publications on immunisation and paediatric topics.