INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD

HEIDI LARSON

Heidi J. Larson, PhD, is an anthropologist and Director of The Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP); Professor of Anthropology, Risk and Decision Science, Dept. Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM); Clinical Professor, Institute of Health Metrics & Evaluation, University of Washington; Guest Professor at the University of Antwerp, and a Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security Fellow.

Larson previously headed Global Immunization Communication at UNICEF, chaired Gavi’s Advocacy Task Force, and served on the WHO SAGE Working Group on vaccine hesitancy. She is author of STUCK: How Vaccine Rumors Start – and Why They Don’t Go Away  (Oxford University Press, 2020). In 2021, she was awarded the Edinburgh Medal and BBC named her as one of the 100 most influential women in the world.

MICHAEL JOHN GORMAN

Michael John Gorman is the The Mark R. Epstein (Class of 1963) Director of the MIT Museum, and Professor of the Practice of Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. Gorman was previously Founding Director of BIOTOPIA Naturkundemuseum Bayern (www.biotopia.net), a new museum of life sciences and environment in development in Munich, and University Professor (Chair) in Life Sciences in Society at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, where he also had a courtesy professorship at the Faculty of Literature and Linguistics.

Previously Michael John was Founding Director of Science Gallery at Trinity College in Dublin, dedicated to igniting creativity and discovery where science and art collide. In 2012 he founded Science Gallery International with the goal of bringing Science Gallery experiences to a global audience.

SUSAN WHITEHEAD

Susan Whitehead is Vice Chair and life board member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. In addition to being a lifetime trustee of MIT, she currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Berklee College of Music, and on the boards of the Museum of Science in Boston and Horizons for Homeless Children.

She is also the former Chair of Horizons for Homeless Children, the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Bayview Correctional Facility in NYC, and Whitehead Institute. Previously a trial attorney in Boston, Whitehead also has experience as an assistant district attorney in New York City and directed a clinical program at Brooklyn Law School. She has had a lifelong passion for the visual arts, particularly photography.

SIR IAN BLATCHFORD

Sir Ian Blatchford is Director and Chief Executive of the Science Museum Group, and served as Director of the Science Museum. The national museum group oversees the Science Museum, National Railway Museum, National Science and Media Museum, Science and Industry Museum, Locomotion, and the Science and Innovation Park.

Previously, Sir Ian was Deputy Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, having joined the museum as Director of Finance and Resources. Earlier in his career he worked at the Bank of England, Barclays de Zoete Wedd, and the Arts Council England, before becoming Director of Finance at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Sir Ian read law at Mansfield College, Oxford and holds an MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck, University of London. He is President of the Royal Literary Fund and was awarded a Knighthood for services to Cultural Education. He is co-author of The Art of Innovation: From Enlightenment to Dark Matter with Tilly Blyth, and co-presented the accompanying BBC Radio 4 series.