[Promotional materials, International Conference on AIDS (13th : 200 : Durban, South Africa)]

PETER PIOT
Executive Director, UNAIDS
Biographical information
Peter Piot was appointed Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme
on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations on 12
December 1994.
Dr Piot joined UNAIDS from a position as Associate Director of the Global
Programme on AIDS of the World Health Organization. Dr Piot had previously served from
1980 to 1992 as Professor of Microbiology and Head of the Department of Infection and
Immunity at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium. During this period, he
also launched and expanded a series of collaborative projects in Burundi, C6te d'Ivoire.
Kenya, Tanzania and Zaire.
Dr Piot was Associate Professor of Public Health at the Free University of Brussels
from 1989 to 1992, and Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of Nairobi
from 1986 to 1987. In 1978-1979, he was Senior Fellow in infectious diseases at the
University of Washington, Seattle. USA. In 1976, he became co-discoverer of the Ebola
virus. He served as the President of the International AIDS Society from 1991 to 1994.
Dr Piot qualified as a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Ghent in 1974 and
received a Doctorate in Microbiology from the University of Antwerp in 1980. He has
received many awards for scientific achievement and public service, and has published over
500 articles and 15 books. He was awarded a baronetcy by H.M. King Albert II of Belgium
in 1995. Dr Piot was born in Leuven, Belgium in 1949.