Lawrence Gostin

Lawrence O. Gostin is University Professor, Georgetown University’s highest academic rank, and Founding O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law. He directs the World Health Organization Center on National and Global Health Law. He served on high-level advisory committees for the World Health Organization, including WHO reform, smallpox, pandemic influenza, and genomic sequencing data. He is working with WHO on the global COVID-19 response, including impacts on the health workforce and international migration. He served on the WHO/Global Fund Blue Ribbon Expert Panel on Equitable Access in Global Health and co-chaired the Lancet Commission on Global Health Law.

Gostin served on two global commissions on the West Africa Ebola epidemic, and was senior advisor to the UN Secretary General. Prof. Gostin also served on the drafting team for the G-7 Summit in Tokyo on global health security. He currently serves as a member of the Independent Panel for a Global Public Health Convention. He also serves on the Panel for the Global Health Security Index.

Prof. Gostin is Global Health editor, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). He’s a Member of the National Academy of Medicine and sits on its Global Health Board. He also serves on the National Academies’ Committee on the Analysis to Enhance the Effectiveness of the Federal Quarantine Station Network based on Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic. President Obama appointed Prof. Gostin to the President’s National Cancer Advisory Board.

Prof. Gostin holds the National Academy of Medicine’s Adam Yarmolinsky Medal for distinguished service of science and health. The American Public Health Law Association awarded Gostin its Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award.

Prof. Gostin’s latest book, Global Health Security: A Blueprint for the Future (Harvard Press, 2021) won the prestigious Association of American Publishers PROSE Award for the best book on Professional and Scholarly Excellence in Biological and Life Sciences.

In the United Kingdom, the National Consumer Council bestowed Prof Gostin with the Rosemary Delbridge Memorial Award for the person “who has most influenced Parliament and government to act for the welfare of society.” He is elected to the Royal Society of Public Health and to the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians.