Prof. Marcel Tanner is the former Director of the Swiss Tropical & Public Health formerly Swiss Tropical Institute (STI) and Professor, Chair of Epidemiology and MediUniversity cal Parasitology of the University of Basel. Prof Tanner holds honorary Professorships at the Faculty of Medicine, of Queensland, the Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne and an Associate Professor of University of Basel. Prof. Tanner is the Dean of the Faculty of Science, University of Basel and a member of the Swiss Academy of Science.Over the last 34 years Prof. Tanner has published over 500 original papers in peer-reviewed journals, and has contributed to 19 book chapters and co-editor of two books on urban health and urbanization. He has also published 400 short communications and abstracts as well as numerous evaluation reports and studies for governments and international agencies. Prof. Tanner prior to joining the Swiss TPH, from 1981-1984 headed the Swiss Tropical Institute Field Laboratory in Ifakara, Tanzania where he managed the epidemiological research projects on malaria and schistosomiasis and community-based studies on the interactions between infection-nutrition-immunity implementation of a primary health care programme at the district level. From 1988-1995 he also got the opportunity to head the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at STI researching in the field of the control of communicable diseases, mainly malaria and schistosomiasis based on extended fieldwork in Africa and Asia.He has also researched on health planning emphasising urbanisation, health service utilisation and decentralisation in health planning and resources allocation. He carried other researches on urban environment and health in Africa (Tanzania, Chad, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Mauritania) and Asia (China, India). He’s worked on health development projects at the district level in rural and urban areas of Africa (Tanzania, Chad, Cameroon) and Asia (India, Thailand). Prof. Tanner has had several teaching appointments teaching and training students at universities in the field of epidemiology and public health in Europe, USA, Africa, Australia and Asia. He’s also consulted in international health issues for governments and international organisations (WHO, World Bank). Professor Jian-Hai Yin works in the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases in Beijing, China. Professor Xiao-Nong Zhou is Director of the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai, P.R.China. He graduated with a PhD in Biology from Copenhagen University, Denmark. His professional works are across the fields of ecology, population biology, epidemiology, and malacology. Professor Zhou is the Chair of the National Expert Advisory Committee on schistosomiasis and other parasitic diseases for China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission. He has written extensively on parasitology and parasitic diseases, with more than 100 peer review publications in international journals, such as N Engl J Med, Lancet, Emerg Inf Dis, Inter J Parasitol, Adv Parasitol, PLoS NTDs, Parasites and Vectors, etc. He has collaborated with WHO/TDR and WHO, including serving as members for WHO STAC on NTDs, WHO/TDR STAC, WHO Foodborne Burden Epidemiology Reference Group. He had contributed, as former President, to the Regional Network on Asian Schistosomiasis and Other Important Zoonoses since 2000. He is the Editor-in-Chief for Infectious Diseases of Poverty (BioMed Central as publisher), and Chinese Journal of Schistosomiasis Control (Chinese national journal).
