When: Thursday, March 18, 2021, 10:00 am - 11:00 am EST
Where: Online

Transatlantic Dialogue Series Inaugural Event

One year ago, a largely unknown virus changed life as we knew it in the United States, Europe, and the world. While little about the virus was understood, a race for PPE supplies, tests, therapeutics and, most importantly, a vaccine, commenced.

Fast forward to 2021: Multiple authorized vaccines are now available, and many more candidate vaccines are in development -- an amazing feat of science that was reliant on extensive transatlantic cooperation, and not possible for any previous pandemic. How have scientists and public health officials on both sides of the Atlantic cooperated to fight the pandemic? What more can the United States and Europe do to provide equitable access to vaccines around the world and enhance pandemic preparedness and response? What can we learn from each other?

Join us on March 18th, 10:00 am EST/3:00 pm CET for the inaugural of the ”Transatlantic Dialogue Series” with world-renowned health authorities about the transatlantic Covid-19 response, vaccine development, and scientific cooperation between the United States and Europe.

The “Transatlantic Dialogue Series” is a speaker and discussion series hosted by the Wilson Center in partnership with the Austrian Embassy in Washington D.C., the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation, and the U.S. Embassy in Vienna.

WELCOME:

Martin Weiss
Austrian Ambassador to the United States

Robin Dunnigan
Chargé d’Affaires a.i. U.S. Embassy in Austria

PANEL:

Eva Scherhammer
Professor of Epidemiology, Medical University Vienna, Harvard Medical School

Jeffrey Koplan
Vice President for Global Health at Emory University, Former Head of the CDC

Florian Krammer
Mount Sinai Professor of Vaccinology, Icahn School of Medicine

MODERATOR:

Daniel S. Hamilton
Director, Global Europe Program; Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Distinguished Fellow

Biographies:

Eva Schernhammer is an alumna of the Medical University of Vienna (MD 1992), who conducted several years of clinical work at the SMZ-Süd (formerly Kaiser-Franz-Josef Hospital) in Vienna, with a focus on oncology, before she became full-time faculty at Harvard Medical School/HSPH in 2003. Since 2015, she is Professor of Epidemiology and Head of the Department of Epidemiology at the Medical University of Vienna, while maintaining active research programs at Harvard. In addition to her MD (Medical University of Vienna, 1992) and Doctor of Public Health, Epidemiology (DrPH, 2003 Harvard School of Public Health), she also holds an MPH (Harvard School of Public Health, 2000) and MSc (Psychology, University of Vienna, 2003). In 2005, Dr. Eva Schernhammer received her Habilitation in Public Health/Social Medicine from the Medical University of Vienna.

Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan is Vice President for Global Health at Emory University, Cofounder of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI), and Principal Investigator of the Global Health Institute-China Tobacco Control Partnership. Dr. Koplan founded the Emory Global Health Institute (EGHI) in 2006, served as its Director until March, 2013, and continues to be actively involved in its daily operations in his role as Vice President for Global Health. Prior to founding EGHI, Dr. Koplan was Vice President for Academic Health Affairs at Emory University. A former Director (1998-2002) and 26-year veteran of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Koplan began his public health career in the early 1970s as a member of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. He has worked on virtually every major public health issue, including infectious diseases such as smallpox and HIV/AIDS, environmental issues such as the Bhopal chemical disaster, and the health toll of tobacco and chronic diseases around the globe.

Florian Krammer, PhD, graduated from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Austria) in 2010. He received his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Palese at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York working on hemagglutinin stalk-based immunity and universal influenza virus vaccines. In 2014 he became an independent principal investigator and is currently Mount Sinai Professor of Vaccinology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Krammer's work focuses on understanding the mechanisms of interactions between antibodies and viral surface glycoproteins and on translating this work into novel, broadly protective vaccines and therapeutics. The main target is influenza virus but he is also working on coronaviruses, flaviviruses, hantaviruses, filoviruses and arenaviruses. He has published more than 240 papers on these topics. Since 2019, Dr. Krammer has served as principal investigator of the Sinai-Emory Multi-Institutional Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Center (SEM-CIVIC), which develops improved seasonal and universal influenza virus vaccines that induce long-lasting protection against drifted seasonal, zoonotic and future pandemic influenza viruses.

Ambassador Weiss started his career in the Austrian Foreign Service in 1990. Previous to his appointment as Austrian Ambassador to the U.S., Martin Weiss served as Ambassador to Israel, as Director of the Press and Information Department of the Foreign Ministry, and as Ambassador to Cyprus. Throughout his career, he held several postings in the United States: He started as a Human Rights Attaché for the Austrian Mission to the United Nations in New York in 1991, held the positions of Political Counselor, Counselor for Congressional Affairs and Public Diplomacy and later Director of the Austrian Press and Information Service at the Austrian Embassy in Washington, and most recently served as Austrian Consul General in Los Angeles from 2004 to 2009. Martin Weiss holds a law degree (equivalent to J.D.) from the University of Vienna and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of Virginia (UVA). He is married and the father of two. Ambassador Weiss took up his duties as Head of Mission in Washington, DC on November 1, 2019

Robin Dunnigan assumed her position as Chargé d’Affaires a.i. of the U.S. Embassy in Austria on January 20, 2021. She arrived in Vienna as the Deputy Chief of Mission in July 2018. A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Ms. Dunnigan joined the State Department in 1992. She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources from August 2014 to August 2017. In this role, she directed U.S. energy diplomacy to ensure that energy resources were used to promote global economic growth and stability and strengthen U.S. national security. Ms. Dunnigan has served at U.S. embassies in Vietnam, Chile, Turkey, Cuba and El Salvador, working extensively on trade, energy, and sanctions issues. In Washington, Ms. Dunnigan’s assignments included Director for the Office of Europe, the Western Hemisphere and Africa in the Energy Bureau, as well as positions in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and on the staff of the Secretary of State in the Operations Center.Ms. Dunnigan is a distinguished graduate of the National War College, where she earned a Master of Science in National Security Strategy. She also received a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley. Ms. Dunnigan speaks Spanish, as well as some German, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

Daniel S. Hamilton is the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Distinguished Fellow and Director of the Global Europe Program at the Wilson Center. He is one of the country’s foremost experts on modern Europe, the transatlantic relationship, and U.S. foreign policy. He testifies regularly before the Senate, the House, and various European parliaments, comments often in U.S. and international media, and is an award-winning author of scores of publications on European and transatlantic security, economic and political affairs, and on U.S. foreign policy issues. A former senior U.S. diplomat, he is also Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins SAIS.