RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme

Biography

Co-Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong
Editor-in-Chief for Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses; has been researching on COVID-19 epidemiology and transmission dynamics, publishing related work in the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, and Nature Medicine
Design and implement large field studies of influenza transmission in the community and the effectiveness and impact of control measures including vaccination, with focus also on immunity to infections at the individual and population level of respiratory viruses including influenza and coronaviruses
SRFS project — to examine optimal vaccination strategies for older adults in the context of repeat vaccination effects, with a view to reducing the substantial morbidity and mortality caused by influenza virus infections in this age group, and the pressure on hospital systems during severe influenza epidemics
Awards and Honours:
- RGC Senior Research Fellow (2020)
- Croucher Senior Research Fellowship (2015)

Project Title

Determining Optimal Influenza Vaccination Strategies in Hong Kong

Award Citation

Professor Benjamin Cowling graduated with a PhD in medical statistics at the University of Warwick (UK) in 2003, and moved to the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong (HKU SPH) in 2004. He has been the Head of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics since 2013, and co-director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control at HKU SPH.

Prof Cowling’s primary research focus is in infectious disease epidemiology. Since the discovery of COVID-19 in January 2020, he has contributed to the scientific knowledge on COVID-19 including transmission dynamics and the effectiveness of public health prevention and control measures, publishing the work in the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, and Nature Medicine. In the past decade he has designed and implemented large field studies of influenza transmission in the community and the effectiveness and impact of control measures including vaccination. His latest research has focused on the modes of transmission, vaccine effectiveness, and immunity to infections at the individual and population level of respiratory viruses including influenza and coronaviruses. Prof Cowling’s listing in Scopus includes 480 published articles with more than 16,000 citations in total. He is one of the “top 1%” most cited scientists listed in ISI Web of Knowledge.

Professor Cowling is a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and the UK Faculty of Public Health. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, and an Associate Editor of Emerging Infectious Diseases.