Wilmot Godfrey James

Wilmot James is a Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) at Columbia University and an Honorary Professor of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He conducts research on pandemic response and biosecurity, convenes high-level meetings on planetary threats, leads the Center for Pandemic Research in the College of Arts and Sciences, and is an Associate Director in the Program in Vaccine Education at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Wilmot co-convened the Schmidt Futures supported Columbia-Witwatersrand Vaccine Safety and Confidence-Building (VacSafe) Working Group and served as deputy chair to Sir Jeremy Farrar on the Vaccine Task Team (VacTask) supporting African governments in sustainable vaccine manufacturing. He serves as a senior consultant in biosecurity to the Washington DC based Nuclear Threat Initiative Bio; as a consultant to the Africa Society for Laboratory Medicine; and is co-chair of the National Framework sub-working group of the G7 led Global Partnership’s Signature Initiative to Mitigate Biological Threats in Africa. Wilmot was previously a Member of Parliament (South Africa) and opposition spokesperson on health, trade and industry, schools and higher education. He served on the Board of Trustees for the Ford Foundation between 1996 and 2008 and currently serves on the Advisory Board of Resolve to Save Lives. Wilmot is the author and/or editor of 17 books that include the policy-oriented Vital Signs: Health Security in South Africa (2020) and a co-edited collection of Nelson Mandela’s speeches Nelson Mandela In His Own Words (2003). Wilmot will join Brown University on April 1 as Professor of Practice and Senior Advisor for Pandemics and Global Health Security in the School of Public Health.