Biographies of Members of, and Advisers to the Meeting of the International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee for Ebola Viral Disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Chair Professor Robert Steffen Department of Epidemiology and Prevention of Infectious Diseases, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Professor Robert Steffen, Professor Emeritus at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, was the Head of the Division of Communicable Diseases in the Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute and Director of a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Traveller's Health. Currently, he is also Adjunct Professor in the Epidemiology, Human Genetics & Environmental Sciences Division of the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, Texas, USA. He began his systematic research in morbidity and mortality of illnesses and accidents related to international travel with the aim of concluding on preventive strategies. In 1988 he convened the first Conference of International Travel Medicine in Zurich, and thereafter became a co-founder and President of the International Society of Travel Medicine which launched the GeoSentinel project jointly with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition to (co-)authoring almost 400 publications, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Travel Medicine the International Journal of Public Health. Not limiting his focus to travel health, he has presided over the Swiss Federal Commission for Influenza Pandemic Planning and Response and he was Vice-President both of the Federal Commission on Vaccination and of the Swiss Bioterrorism Committee. He has been invited by WHO to be an advisor or Chairman of advisory boards, such as during the revision of the International Health Regulations (IHR), on malaria, tuberculosis, yellow fever, vaccine preventable diseases, epidemiological preparedness in international airports, aircraft disinsection for controlling the international spread of vector borne diseases, and on public health measures in chemical and biological warfare. He also served in UN peacekeeping missions in Namibia and the Western Sahara. Professor Steffen served as Vice-Chair of the 2014-2016 IHR Emergency Committee for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), Chair of the 2018 IHR Emergency Committee for EVD which took place in May 2018, and Chair of the IHR Emergency Committee on Ebola in October 2018. Members Dr Preben Aavitsland Senior Consultant, Professor, Domain for infectious disease prevention, health and the environment, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway. Dr Aavitsland is the former state epidemiologist of Norway (2002-2012). He served for 21 years in various posts at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health until 2012, including several leading roles, such as Director of Preparedness. He was the Norwegian member of the Advisory Forum of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the EU’s Network Committee for Communicable Diseases. Dr Aavitsland was part of the Norwegian delegation in the 2004-2005 negotiations on the International Health Regulations. He served on the 2010- 2011 Review Committee on the Functioning of the International Health Regulations (2005) in relation to Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, and on the 2015-2016 Review Committee on the Role of the International Health Regulations (2005) in the Ebola Outbreak and Response. He has published extensively on infectious disease epidemiology and control and supervised eight PhD candidates at the University of Oslo. He was Medical Editor at the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association for 13 years and is now on the editorial board of Epidemiology and Infection. Professor Lucille Blumberg Deputy-Director, Head of Division and Head of Travel Health at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa. Division of Public Health Surveillance and Response and Centre for Emerging , Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases. She trained at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and has specialist qualifications in clinical microbiology, infectious diseases and travel medicine. She is the founding head of the of the Public Health Surveillance and Response Division which is responsible for outbreak preparedness and response, travel medicine, and surveillance for diseases of public health importance. She is a medical consultant to the Emerging Pathogens Centre on rabies and viral haemorrhagic fevers. Professor Blumberg’s special interests are tropical diseases, travel medicine, mass gatherings, severe malaria, the viral haemorrhagic fevers and rabies. She is a member of South African expert groups on Ebola, rabies, malaria (Chair of the national advisory group) and National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) lead for the WHO Collaborating Centre for Mass Gatherings. She was a member of the 2014-2015 IHR Emergency Committee for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). In January 2017 she was appointed Chairperson of the Yellow Fever Advisory Group to WHO for travellers (GRYFF). Professor Lucille Blumberg was also member of the 2018 IHR Emergency Committee for EVD which took place in October 2018. Dr Abdoulaye Bousso Director, Senegal Health Emergency Operations Center, Dakar, Senegal. Dr Abdoulaye Bousso is a national of Senegal, and is an expert in disaster management and health emergencies. He is also an International Health Regulations and Health Emergency Operations Center expert for WHO. He established one of the fully functional Health Operation Centers in Africa Dr Bousso has degree in medicine, disaster management, orthopedic and trauma surgery and administration and finance. He is also a humanitarian, member of Médecins Sans Frontières, and as such has worked as a surgeon in different operation theatres in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Haiti. He has occupied senior positions in Senegal as a Technical Adviser to the Minister of Health, Vice-President of the Senegalese Medical Council and Secretary-General of the Senegalese Physicians’ Union. Dr Martin Cetron Director, Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta Emergency, USA. Dr Cetron holds faculty appointments in the Division of Infectious Disease at the Emory University School of Medicine and the Department of Epidemiology at Rollins School of Public Health. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1981 and his M.D. from Tufts University in 1985. He trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia and Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington before joining the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service and becoming a Commissioned Officer in the United States Public Health Service (PHS) in 1992. His primary research interests are global health and migration with a focus on emerging infections, tropical diseases, and vaccine-preventable diseases in mobile populations. Dr Cetron has co-authored more than 100 publications. He has also been a leader in public health emergency preparedness and response activities at CDC and is a graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health & Kennedy School of Government’s National Preparedness Leadership Institute. For over 20 years, he has conducted epidemiologic research globally, developed global health policy and led domestic and international outbreak investigations including high profile international emergency responses to emerging infectious disease outbreaks [Anthrax bioterrorism 2001, SARS epidemic 2003, U.S. Monkeypox 2003, Hurricane Katrina/ Rita 2005, H1N1 influenza pandemic 2009, Haiti Earthquake / Cholera Responses 2010-11, Japan Tsunami-Radiation 2011, H7N9 2013, and MERS CoV 2012-3, Coronavirus Response (2013), Unaccompanied Children Central America (2014), Ebola Response (2014) & Zika Virus (2015). Dr Cetron has been a consultant to several WHO Expert Committees: the United States delegation intergovernmental negotiations of IHR 2005, the Pandemic Influenza and IHR Review Panel 2010, and the IHR emergency committee roster of independent experts. He also was elected in 2016 for a fellowship with IDSA (Infectious Diseases Society of America) & ASTMH (American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene). Matin Cetron was a member of 2018 IHR Emergency Committee for EVD which took place in October 2018. Dr Joanna Jordaan Chief, Aviation Medicine Section, International Civil Aviation Organization, Montreal, Canada. Dr Jordaan is also the Manager of the “Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events” (CAPSCA) programme in Civil Aviation. CAPSCA is a global multi-partner programme (ICAO, WHO, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, aviation industry and other partners) providing assistance to international airports and States to help build capacity to manage public health emergencies. Previously, Dr Jordaan was the Medical Director of Occupational Health at International SOS, where she was responsible for the oversight of Emergency Medical clinics and occupational Health clinics of International SOS corporate clients in remote areas in sub-Saharan African countries. In this position she also facilitated air ambulance transport of patients from remote clinics to specialized medical centres of care. Prior to International SOS she was employed by the Life Occupational Health Hospital group as the Project Director for Transnet Freight Rail in South Africa, reviewing the client’s health