Rosanna Peeling is currently Professor and Chair of Diagnostics Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Director of the International Diagnostic Centre (IDC).
Trained as a medical microbiologist, she was Research Coordinator and Head of Diagnostics Research at the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme on Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (WHO/TDR) in Geneva, Switzerland, and Head of the National Laboratory for Sexually Transmitted Infections in Canada before assuming her current position.
Her work focuses on research to identify unmet diagnostic needs, and to facilitate test development, evaluation and implementation in the developing world.
She established the IDC to advocate the value of diagnostics, foster innovation, and accelerate access to quality-assured diagnostics to improve global health.
She is a member of many WHO and international advisory panels, including the Prize Advisory Panel for the UK Longitude Prize and The European Commission Horizon 2020 Prize to incentivise point-of-care test development to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions and conserve antibiotics for future generations.
She was the recipient of a YM-YWCA Women of Distinction Award, a 5NR Award for Canadian Leaders of Sustainable Development, and her research was featured in a Discovery Channel documentary on Chlamydia Infection and Infertility, and in Fighting Syphilis, a documentary in the highly acclaimed BBC Kill or Cure series.
In 2014, Professor Peeling was awarded the George MacDonald Medal for outstanding contribution to tropical medicine by the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, becoming the first woman to receive this honour.