Joanne P. Webster is a British epidemiologist who is the

Royal Veterinary College The Royal Veterinary College (informally the RVC) is a veterinary school located in London and a member institution of the federal University of London. The RVC was founded in 1791 and joined the University of London in 1949. It is the oldest an ...

Chair in Parasitic Diseases, Director of the Centre for Emerging, Endemic and Exotic Diseases and Professor of Infectious Diseases at

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. She is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Biology The Royal Society of Biology (RSB), previously called the Society of Biology, is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom created to advance the interests of biology in academia, industry, education, and research. Fo ...

and

Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) is an award for medical scientists who are judged by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences for the "excellence of their science, their contribution to medicine and society and the range of the ...

Early life and education

Webster was an undergraduate student at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. She remained there for her doctoral research, where she studied the epidemiology of zoonotic disease. She focussed on ''

Toxoplasma gondii ''Toxoplasma gondii'' () is a species of parasitic alveolate that causes toxoplasmosis. Found worldwide, ''T. gondii'' is capable of infecting virtually all warm-blooded animals, but members of the cat family (felidae) are the only known d ...

'' and how it causes chronic disease in humans and animals. She spent a year at the NHS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre. Webster eventually returned to Oxford for a series of postgraduate fellowships, including a

Junior Research Fellowship After completing a postgraduate degree, one of the options is to pursue a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) program. These Ph.D programs cost money and time. To help a scholar there are many Research Fellowship Schemes in India funded by either a gov ...

and a

Royal Society University Research Fellowship __NOTOC__ The Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) is a research fellowship awarded to outstanding early career scientists in the United Kingdom who are judged by the Royal Society to have the potential to become leaders in their fie ...

. During her fellowships, Webster expanded her research to the Global South.

Research and career

In 2003, Webster joined the

Faculty of Medicine, where she was made professor in 2006. Over a series of experiments Webster showed that toxoplasma infections can cause behavioural changes rodents, making them easier prey. It was predicted that in the brains of humans toxoplasma could cause considerable damage, including schizophrenia. At Imperial, she became co-director of the

Schistosomiasis Schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever, bilharzia, and Katayama fever is a neglected tropical helminthiasis, disease caused by parasitism, parasitic Schistosoma, flatworms called schistosomes. It affects both humans and animals. It affects ...

Control Initiative (SCI), which looked to eliminate parasitic disease. Over the ten years Webster was co-director, the SCI had provided over 300 million treatments to children. Webster was made associate director of the

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a public university, public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and a constituent college, member institution of the University of London that specialises in public hea ...

and

London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research, where she researched how to control and eliminate

neglected tropical diseases Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of tropical infections that are common in low-income populations in developing regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. They are caused by a variety of pathogens, such as viruses, bacteri ...

. She was made chair in Parasitic Diseases at Imperial College London in 2014, where she studied human and animal tropical medicine and serves as Director of the RVC's Centre for Emerging, Endemic and Exotic Diseases.

Awards and honours

* 2005 CA Wright Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Parasitology * 2007 National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research NC3Rs Prize * 2013 Chalmers Memorial Medal to recognise Outstanding Contribution to Tropical Medicine * 2019

London International Development Centre The London International Development Centre (LIDC) was established in 2007, through funding of £3.7m from HEFCE. LIDC is a collaborative between University of London's Bloomsbury Colleges ( Birkbeck, the UCL Institute of Education, the London Sc ...

Five Inspirational Women Shaping the Future of International Development * 2019 Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology * 2021 Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award * 2022 Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences * 2023

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

Leeuwenhoek Medal * 2025

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

Selected publications

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Webster, Joanne Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Oxford People associated with the Royal Veterinary College British epidemiologists 21st-century British women scientists Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Fellows of the Royal Society of Biology Fellows of the Royal Society