Linfa Wang

Professor Linfa Wang is a leading researcher in emerging infections, including the discovery of novel, potentially zoonotic, viruses in bats. He is Director of the Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore, and an Office of the Chief Executive Science Leader at CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL).

Professor Wang has significantly advanced our understanding of the role of bats as a key reservoir of human pathogens. His lab played a leading role in identifying bats as the natural host of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus. He has also discovered a number of new viruses, including a novel bat orthoreovirus, Melaka virus, which can cause an acute respiratory disease in humans and Cedar virus, a novel hepinavirus related to the highly pathogenic Hendra and Nipah viruses, but without causing clinical disease.

Professor Wang obtained his PhD at the University of California, Davis, USA and then moved to the Monash Centre for Molecular Biology and Medicine. In 1990, he joined the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) and now holds dual positions at CSIRO and Duke-NUS, Singapore. He received the CSIRO Award for Excellence in Partnership in 2006 and was finalist for the Eureka Prize for Scientific Research in 2007. Professor Wang is an Honorary Professor of the University of Melbourne and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and an Elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.