Michael H. Merson, M.D., is the former and founding director of SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute (SDGHI) and the Wolfgang Joklik Professor of Global Health at Duke University. As SDGHI’s faculty member, he provides policy advice to domestic and international organisations on access to COVID-19 vaccine in low and middle income countries and advises multinational companies and associations on various aspects of the pandemic. He also works actively with local and international media to convey knowledge about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prof Merson served as the founding director of the Duke Global Health Institute from 2006-2017, Vice President and Vice Provost for Global Affairs from 2011-2018 at Duke University, and as Vice Chancellor for Duke-National University of Singapore Affairs from 2010-2016.
Prior to joining Duke, he served as the first Dean of the Yale School of Public Health and as Director of the Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS. From 1978-1995 he worked at the World Health Organization, first as Director of the Diarrheal Diseases Control Program, then as Director of the Global Program on AIDS, which lead the global response to the AIDS pandemic. Dr. Merson has authored over 180 articles, primarily in disease prevention, is the senior editor of the textbook Global Health: Disease, Programs, Systems, and Policies, and co-authored The AIDS Pandemic: Searching for a Global Response, which examines the 36 year history of the global response to the pandemic.
He has two honorary degrees, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.