Our team includes epidemiologists, physicians, bench scientists, data scientists, and experts in public health and public policy. Our mission is to accelerate safe, effective, and ethical responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, based on the best science and expertise as it becomes available.

Pandefense was founded in 2005 by Dr. Larry Brilliant, a renowned epidemiologist, technologist, and philanthropist. Since being part of the team that eradicated smallpox in India in the 1970s, he has devoted much of his career to pandemic response, prevention, and awareness. 

Today’s Pandefense Advisory is the latest in a series of iterations that began in 2005, amidst the avian flu outbreak. Dr. Brilliant and Peter Schwartz, a strategic futurist and cofounder of Global Business Network, convened dozens of leading scientists, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and executives to imagine the trajectory and consequences of a global pandemic in an unprepared world. 

The gathering seeded a number of developments: a venture capital fund for the diagnosis and surveillance of global disease outbreaks; $1 billion in federal funding for research and development; the creation of county, state, and national pandemic preparedness guidelines; a Harvard Business Review issue devoted to the topic; and the 2011 film “Contagion”. Over the decades, a remarkable network of researchers and practitioners formed around the imperative to prepare for the next pandemic. This is our Pandefense network -- colleagues who have worked together for decades on the frontlines of public health and behind the scenes in government, academia, private industry, and nonprofits.