Keynote Lecture
Zeno’s Paradoxes and Pandemic Preparedness
Keynote Speaker
Professor Susan Hopkins is the Chief Medical Advisor at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). In this capacity she leads the Clinical and Public Health Group, whose objective is to provide professional health security, clinical and public health leadership.
From 2020 to 2022, Susan served as Incident Director and subsequently National Strategic Response Director for COVID-19 in Public Health England and was the Chief Medical Advisor for NHS Test and Trace.
She is also a Professor of Infectious Diseases and Health Security at University College London and continues to work clinically as a consultant in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.
Keynote Lecture
Zeno’s Paradoxes and Pandemic Preparedness
We must learn to sustain and maintain public health and academic collaborations developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. These collaborations encompass basic science, epidemiology, data science and modelling, genomics and immunology capacity building. We saw the rewards of these partnerships through the responses to Monkeypox and severe hepatitis in children in 2022. This talk will use some of Zeno’s paradoxes to explore optimal readiness for future epidemics and pandemics working across the UK’s four public health agencies and academic groups.
Keynote Response
Paul Johnston, Chief Executive of Public Health Scotland responded to this year's lecture .
Paul was appointed Chief Executive of Public Health Scotland in March 2023. Prior to this role, Paul spent eight years as a member of the Executive Team and Corporate Board in the Scottish Government. His responsibilities covered many areas of social policy that impact on health. He was Director General for Education and Justice between 2015 and 2021.
Paul became Director General for Communities in 2021 with responsibility for social security, housing, equality, human rights, local government and public service reform.
Paul is a qualified lawyer and joined the Scottish Government in 2000, holding a range of legal and policy roles including a secondment as a Director in the UK Government.