Jeremy Farrar has been the chief scientist at the World Health Organization since May 2023. In that role he oversees the work of the science division, bringing together experts and networks working in science and innovation from around the world to help ensure WHO is a science and evidence centric organisation and that innovation and high-quality health products, policies and services are available equitably to everyone, everywhere.

Farrar is a clinician scientist who before joining the WHO was between 2013-2023 the Director of the Wellcome Trust. Prior to that between 1996-2013 he was Director of the Clinical Research Unit Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City Viet Nam, where his clinical and research interests were in infectious diseases and global health with a focus on emerging infections. Farrar has published over 600 articles. He was named 12th in the Fortune list of 50 World’s Greatest Leaders in 2015, included in the Politico’s Class of 2022 most influential people in Europe and in 2024 named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in health. He was awarded the Memorial Medal and Ho Chi Minh City Medal in Viet Nam and in 2018 the President Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian of the Year Award. Jeremy was knighted in the Queen’s 2018 New Year Honours for services to global health and was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun and Gold Ray Neck Ribbon in 2020 from the Japanese government in the name of the Emperor of Japan for contributions to global health.

Farrar trained in neurology and infectious diseases in London, Edinburgh and Oxford in the United Kingdom and in Melbourne in Australia. He has a PhD in Immunology from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom in partnership with the University of California in San Francisco. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences UK, the National Academies USA, the European Molecular Biology Organisation and a Fellow of the Royal Society.