ProfessorJoanne Webster, FMedSci

Career summary
Professor Joanne P. Webster FMedSci

After gaining a double First-class BSc hons, Joanne’s Doctoral research at the University of Oxford focused on the epidemiology of zoonotic disease within the UK, including initiating novel work on the impact of Toxoplasma gondii on host behaviour and its association with chronic disease across both humans and animals. After a year working as a Clinical Scientist at the NHS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC), specialising in congenital syphilis amongst babies born in the UK, Joanne returned to the University of Oxford as a postdoctoral Fellow, EPA Cephalosporin Junior Research Fellow (JRF), Lecturer in Infectious Diseases and as a Royal Society University Research Fellow (URF). During this period, Joanne expanded the scope of her work to encompass global health and tropical field research and disease control across much of Africa and Asia. Joanne accepted a Readership at Imperial College’s Faculty of Medicine in 2003 and was rapidly promoted to a tenured Professorial Chair in Infectious Diseases in 2006. The key motivation for this move was the unique opportunity to be co-Director of the then newly formed Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI). During this period (2003-2014), these activities provided approximately 300 million anthelminthic preventative chemotherapeutic treatments for children and at-risk adults across sub-Saharan Africa, and were awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize and Medal for International Public Health Impact. SCI was also listed as the top UK charity by ‘Giving what we can’ and in the top two International charities by ‘Give Well’. In 2013, Joanne became Associate Director of the then newly formed London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research (LCNTDR) to undertake evidence-based research around the design, implementation and evaluation of NTD control and elimination programmes. In October 2014, Joanne joined the RVC as their Chair in Parasitic Diseases (whilst retaining her Chair (as Hon/Vis) in Infectious Diseases at Imperial) to further expand her One Health research and disease control activities encompassing both human clinical and animal veterinary tropical medicine. Joanne served as Director of the RVC’s Centre for Emerging, Endemic and Exotic Diseases (CEEED) and Head’s their Pathogen Flow in Ecosystems strategic grouping. In 2022 Joanne became Director of the LCNTDR.

Joanne’s research and disease control activities have been awarded a number of high-profile Prizes, Medals and Recognitions, for example: The CA Wright Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Parasitology (2005); National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of animals in research NC3Rs prize (2007); Queen’s Anniversary Medal for International Public Health Impact (2008); Royal Society of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine/Elsevier Citation Prize (2009); Chalmers Memorial Medal to recognise Outstanding Contribution to Tropical Medicine (2013) from The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; Finalist (top three) BBSRC Innovator of the Year for International Impact (2018); named in an International Woman’s Day List of ‘Five Inspirational Women Shaping the Future of International Development’ (2019); elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB) (2019); an ‘Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award for unwavering excellence in their chosen fields’ (2021); was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) - an award for medical scientists who are judged by the Academy of Medical Sciences for the “excellence of their science, their contribution to medicine and society and the range of their achievements’’ (2022); Faculty of Medicine’s 25th Anniversary Staff Award Winner for Global Impact Award in recognition of ‘outstanding contribution to global health impact and faculty life at Imperial College London as a Director of the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (Team category) (2023); selected as UK Collaborative on Development Research (UKCDR) – Case Study Highlight demonstrating Global Impact of UK Research (2023); and awarded The Royal Society Leeuwenhoek Medal for ‘achievements in advancing the control of disease in humans and animals which are caused by parasites in Asia and Africa’ (2023) and Lecture (2024).