Professor Kanta Subbarao is a virologist and paediatric infectious diseases specialist. She is an expert on the biology, pathogenesis and vaccines for emerging viral diseases of global importance: influenza, SARS, MERS and COVID-19, with 200 peer-reviewed papers and 72 reviews/chapters. She is a member of WHO advisory panels on seasonal and pandemic influenza and COVID-19 vaccines, the Australian National Influenza Surveillance Committee and several Scientific Advisory Boards.

Professor Subbarao is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and is on the Editorial Board of PLoS Pathogens, mBio, Journal of Virology, Cell Host and Microbe and Med.