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Professor emer.
University of Zurich, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, WHO Collaborating Centre for Travellers’ Health, Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences, University of Texas, School of Public Health, Houston, Texas, USA, Switzerland
Disclosure(s): GSK group of companies: Advisor/Consultant, Honoraria
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. He is also Adjunct Professor in the Epidemiology, Human Genetics & Environmental Sciences Division of the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, TX, and Honorary Fellow of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine and of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM).
In the 1970’s Robert Steffen started systematic research in morbidity and mortality related to international travel, particularly such from industrialized to lower-income countries. On the basis of epidemiological evidence, he concluded on preventive strategies, particularly setting priorities in vaccine preventable diseases. Besides having (co-) authored more than 400 publications, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Travel Medicine 2003 to 2011, of the International Journal of Public Health 1994 to 2000 and Section Editor for Clinical Infectious Diseases 2000 to 2003.
For 12 years each, Robert Steffen presided the Swiss Federal Commission for Influenza Pandemic Planning and Response and the Expert Committee for Travel Medicine; he was Vice-President both of the Federal Commission on Vaccination and of the Swiss Bioterrorism Committee. The WHO Headquarters in Geneva often have invited him as advisor or chairman of advisory boards, such as during the revision of the International Health Regulations and on vaccine preventable diseases in travellers. During the large outbreaks in West Africa and later in the D.R. of Congo he served the WHO HQ as Chair of the Ebola Emergency Committees.