Bio
Prof. Olivier Sparagano received his BSc and MSc from the University of Paris VII, France, his MRes from the University Blaise Pascal, France, and his PhD from the Institut Pasteur and the University Lyon I, France. Before joining City University of Hong Kong, he was the Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Professor of Animal Health and Biotechnology at Coventry University, UK. Prior to this appointment, he was the Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Northumbria University, UK. Olivier is a Chartered Biologist, a Fellow of the Society for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (of which he was the President several times), a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and an Associate Member of the Royal Society for Chemistry. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed papers and over 400 conference abstracts. He has been working on animal diseases, zoonotic pathogens and vector-borne issues for over two decades.

Bio
Dr. Lydia R. Leonardo is part of the Parasitology Research Group of the Institute of Biology, University of the Philippines Diliman that is involved in highly collaborative researches on schistosomiasis, food-borne helminthiases, and other parasitic infections. Dr. Leonardo is currently the president of the Philippine Society of Parasitology, Inc. and the secretary of the Regional Network on Asian Schistosomiasis and other Helminthic Zoonoses (RNAS+). She received the Philippine Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology Lourdes Campos Award for Public Health for 2021. She is also a member of the Technical Advisory Group on Schistosomiasis and Soil-transmitted Helminthiases of the WHO.

Bio
Dr. Arve Lee Willingham currently serves as Professor and Chair of the United Arab Emirates University’s Department of Veterinary Medicine. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine, USA. Following four years of private veterinary practice he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer Veterinarian (1990-1992) in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco where he developed an interest in parasitic zoonoses of both public health and agricultural importance in developing countries. This interest led to Fulbright Graduate Research Fellowship (1993) and PhD (1994-1997) study programs on zoonotic schistosomiasis at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Denmark. From 1997-2010 Dr Willingham was involved in projects in Africa funded by the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) aimed at strengthening research capacity on parasitic diseases of livestock belonging to small-scale farmers during which he was seconded by DANIDA to the Nairobi-based International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to work with their project on human health impacts of livestock keeping from 2004-2006. Dr. Willingham worked at the World Health Organization’s Special Program for Tropical Diseases Research and Training (TDR) based in Geneva, Switzerland from 2010-2013 where he facilitated identification and prioritization of global research needs for helminth and zoonotic diseases as well as for the thematic area of the environment, agriculture and infectious diseases, and assisted in initiating TDR’s new research program on environmental and climate change impacts on vector-borne diseases.