About
Find out more about the conference, IAS – the International AIDS Society – and the committee of six leading scientists chairing this prevention-focused IAS COVID-19 Conference.
About the COVID-19 Conference: Prevention
IAS – the International AIDS Society – will host the IAS COVID-19 Conference: Prevention, with a special focus on prevention, on Tuesday, 2 February 2021.
In recognition of the urgent need to analyse research, review policy and exchange frontline experiences related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and because many of the global experts working on HIV are also leading voices in SARS-CoV-2 research, the IAS launched the IAS COVID-19 Conference in July 2020. The 2nd IAS COVID-19 Conference with a special focus on prevention will feature the latest in prevention related science, policy and practice. The conference will take place virtually and will include invited-speaker sessions and abstract presentations.
Registration for the IAS COVID-19 Conference: Prevention opens on 4 November 2020. Those registered for the 4th HIV Research for Prevention Conference (HIVR4P // VIRTUAL), hosted during the same period as the COVID-19 Conference, are automatically registered.
About IAS – the International AIDS Society
IAS – the International AIDS Society – leads collective action on every front of the global HIV response through its membership base, scientific authority and convening power. Founded in 1988, the IAS is the world’s largest association of HIV professionals, with members in more than 170 countries.
Working with its members, the IAS advocates and drives urgent action to reduce the impact of HIV. The IAS is also the steward of the world’s most prestigious HIV conferences: the International AIDS Conference, the IAS Conference on HIV Science, and the HIV Research for Prevention Conference. For more information, visit www.iasociety.org.
Committee
The programme of the IAS COVID-19 Conference: Prevention, with a special focus on prevention, is developed in collaboration with a scientific committee to provide a unique opportunity for global experts and leading voices in SARS-CoV-2 basic science, vaccines, non-pharmaceutical prevention and global access and policy to help shape the evolving response to COVID-19. The conference programme is designed to include the latest science on COVID-19 and its impact on health and beyond – with perspectives on policy, access and financing – in addition to deliberations on how to join forces for tomorrow.
Linda-Gail Bekker, IAS Past-President
University of Cape Town, South Africa
Bio
Linda-Gail Bekker (South Africa) served as IAS President (2016- 2018). She co-chaired the 9th IAS Conference on HIV Science in Paris, France and the 22nd International AIDS conference 2018 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Linda-Gail Bekker is Deputy Director, Desmond Tutu HIV Centre, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa. She is the Chief Operating Officer of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation.
A physician scientist and infectious disease specialist, Professor Bekker’s research interests include programmatic antiretroviral roll out, HIV/tuberculosis integration, and HIV prevention in women, youth, and men who have sex with men. She is Principal Investigator of UCT’s Clinical Trials Unit (UCTCTU) and is actively involved in the work of the 4 associated UCTCTU clinical research sites and NIH Division of AIDS (DAIDS) networks. She has chaired protocols for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network and the HIV Prevention Trials Network and been Investigator of Record in a number of network-related protocols. She heads up the Desmond Tutu Centre of Adolescent Health and Wellbeing aimed at developing the adolescent HIV/TB/STI treatment and prevention evidence base to inform adolescent-friendly sexual and reproductive service platforms.
Susan Buchbinder, IAS Governing Council
University of California, USA
Bio
Dr. Susan Buchbinder (USA) was elected to the IAS Governing Council in July 2020 and has been an IAS member for more than two decades. She is the director of Bridge HIV at the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) and Clinical Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Dr. Buchbinder focuses her research on risk factors for HIV acquisition and interventions to prevent HIV infection, including HIV vaccines, pre-exposure prophylaxis, behavioral interventions, microbicides and combination modalities.
She has served in leadership positions in the HIV Vaccine Trials Network and HIV Prevention Trials Network, and has participated in numerous NIH and UCSF advisory committees including the AIDS Research Advisory Committee, Prevention Sciences Working Group, Office of AIDS Research Advisory Committee, UCSF Center for AIDS Research Internal Advisory Board, UCSF AIDS Research Institute Scientific Council. Dr. Buchbinder has over 240 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Beatriz Grinsztejn, IAS Governing Council
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Brazil
Bio
Beatriz Grinsztejn (Brazil) is an IAS Governing Council member is an infectious diseases physician and researcher at the Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectious Diseases-Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the Director of the STD/AIDS Clinical Research Laboratory and principal investigator of the FIOCRUZ HIV Prevention and Therapeutic Clinical Trials Unit at FIOCRUZ. The unit is affiliated to the HIV Prevention Trials Network, the AIDS Clinical Trials Group and the ANRS, and implements prevention and therapeutic clinical trials and cohort studies.
Dr Grinsztejn is the Brazilian principal investigator for the Caribbean, Central and South America network for HIV epidemiology of the International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS. She is a member of the Brazilian Ministry of Health ART and PrEP Advisory Committees, PAHO Technical Advisory Committee and PrEP Task Force, and the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel. Dr Grinsztejn is a faculty member of the Masters and PhD Degree Program on Clinical Research in Infectious Diseases at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.
Adeeba Kamarulzaman, IAS President
University of Malaya, Malaysia
Bio
Prof Adeeba Kamarulzaman of Malaysia became the first Asian President of IAS – the International AIDS Society – on 11 July 2020 when she began her two–year term. Prof Kamarulzaman is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Yale University, USA, and chairs the Malaysian AIDS Foundation, a trust that raises funds for HIV related programmes. In 1997, Prof Kamarulzaman established the Infectious Diseases Unit at the University of Malaya Medical Centre and, in 2008, the Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS (CERiA) at the same university. As convener of the Malaysian Harm Reduction Working Group of the Malaysian AIDS Council, she successfully advocated for the implementation of harm reduction measures to tackle HIV among people who inject drugs in Malaysia. She was the President of the Malaysian AIDS Council from 2006 to 2010. In 2015, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws by her alma mater, Monash University, Australia for her contributions to medicine and as a health advocate.
Jennifer Kates, IAS Treasurer
Kaiser Family Foundation, USA
Bio
Jennifer Kates (USA) is the IAS Governing Council Treasurer. She is Vice President and Director of Global Health & HIV Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, where she oversees the Foundation’s policy analysis and research focused on the U.S. government’s role in global health and on the global and domestic HIV epidemics. Widely regarded as an expert in the field, she regularly publishes and presents on global health and HIV policy issues and is particularly known for her work analyzing donor government investments in global health; assessing and mapping the U.S. government’s global health architecture, programs, and funding; and tracking and analyzing major U.S. HIV programs and financing, and key trends in the HIV epidemic, an area she has been working in for close to thirty years.
Prior to joining the Foundation in 1998, Dr. Kates was a Senior Associate with The Lewin Group, a health care consulting firm, where she focused on HIV policy, strategic planning/health systems analysis, and health care for vulnerable populations. Among other prior positions, she directed the Office of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns at Princeton University.Dr. Kates serves on numerous federal and private sector advisory committees on global health and HIV issues, and is currently amember of PEPFAR’s Scientific Advisory Board, the NIH Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council, and the CDC/HRSA Advisory Committee on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and STD Prevention and Treatment (CHACHSPT). In addition, she serves as an Alternate Board Member of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.Dr. Kates received her Ph.D. in Health Policy from George Washington University.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College, a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts. She is currently a lecturer at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Sharon Lewin, IAS President-Elect
Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Australia
Bio
Sharon Lewin (Australia) is the IAS President-Elect. She is an infectious diseases physician and basic scientist, and has worked in HIV-related clinical medicine and research for over 25years. She is the director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.
Lewin is an active clinician, working at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne. Lewin is internationally recognised for her expertise in the field of HIV cure, HIV-hepatitis B virus (HBV) co-infection and immune recovery post ART. She has over 250 publications, predominately related to HIV cure and understanding HIV disease and related co-infections including HBV, cryptococcal infection and cytomegalovirus. She is one of four editors for the journal AIDS and on the editorial board of Lancet HIV.
She has been involved with the International AIDS Society (IAS) as a member since 2007, when she was deputy chair of the 4th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention held in Sydney, Australia. She was the local co-chair for the 20th International AIDS Conference held in Melbourne in 2014. As local Co-Chair, she was able to leverage significant in-kind and financial support from the Australian and Victorian Governments and the city of Melbourne.
She also co-chairs the advisory board for the IAS Towards an HIV Cure initiative. She is a member of the council of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia, the peak funding body for medical research in Australia and chairs the NHMRC’s Health Translation Advisory Committee. She is a member of the governing board of the International Coalition for the Elimination of Hepatitis B virus (ICE-HBV) and a member of the leadership committee of the Global Virology Network. She was previously President of the Australian Society for HIV Medicine. She is a member of the Strategic Technical Advisory Committee to the Director, HIV Program, World Health Organisation, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board to the director of UNAIDS.
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