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The World Health Organization has named Jeremy Farrar as its new Chief Scientist. He replaces Soumya Swaminathan, who was the UN health agency’s first appointee to the job, just ahead of the pandemic.
Farrar is Director of the Wellcome Trust, and will join WHO in the second quarter of 2023. The appointment comes even as the top scientists and administrations in the United Kingdom, United States and the European Union come under intense scrutiny for their messaging and handling of Covid-19.
As Chief Scientist, Farrar will oversee the Science Division, bringing together the best brains in science and innovation globally to develop and deliver quality health services, the WHO said.
Before joining Wellcome in 2013, Farrar, a clinician scientist, spent 17 years as Director of the Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Vietnam where his research interests were in global health with a focus on emerging infectious diseases.
Under Farrar, Wellcome has taken an increasingly global outlook, focusing on funding discovery research projects to transform understanding of life, health and well-being, and supporting science-based solutions to address three urgent challenges: infectious disease, mental health, and the effects of climate change on health, the note said. Farrar is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences UK, European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO), the National Academies USA and a Fellow of The Royal Society.
Another appointment also announced by the WHO, on Tuesday, was of Amelia Latu Afuhaamango Tuipulotu, who will become the agency’s Chief Nursing Officer. Previously Minister for Health of the Kingdom of Tonga, and before that Tonga’s Chief Nursing Officer, Dr Tuipulotu will join WHO in the first quarter of 2023, the WHO said.
As WHO’s Chief Nursing Officer, Tuipulotu will champion, nurture and support nurses and midwives to ensure that their skills and experience are being well-utilised to strengthen health systems and to bolster their critical role in bringing patients, communities and national health systems closer together. In 2019 Tuipulotu became the Kingdom of Tonga’s first female Minister for Health.
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