Chris Beyrer MD, MPH is an international expert in epidemiology and has extensive experience conducting international collaborative research and training programs in HIV/AIDS and other infectious disease epidemiology, infectious disease prevention research, HIV among key populations, and health and human rights.
Dr. Beyrer is the Desmond M. Tutu Professor of Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a professor of epidemiology, international health, health, behavior and society, and nursing. He is the director of the Johns Hopkins HIV Epidemiology and Prevention Science Training Program and is a founding director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights. He is also the associate director of the Johns Hopkins Center for AIDS Research and of the University’s Center for Global Health, and serves as a member of the MSM Working Group of the HIV Prevention Trials Network.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Beyrer has been engaged in research focusing on de-densifying prisons to curb the spread of COVID-19, transmission of COVID-19 and the efficacy of mask-wearing, and the development of COVID-19 vaccines. He also serves as senior scientific liaison to the COVID-19 Prevention Network, a group formed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases dedicated to addressing the pressing need for vaccines and monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
As director of the Johns Hopkins Fogarty AITRP Program, Dr. Beyrer provided fellowships for more than 1,400 international scholars in HIV/AIDS prevention, research, and treatment. He served as field director of the Thai PAVE and HIVNET studies from 1992 to 1996, based in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, and has done extensive research in the epidemiology of HIV in Burma, China, India, Thailand, and across Southeast Asia; in Russia and Kazakhstan, in Malawi and South Africa, and in the United States. He is the author of the 1998 book War in the Blood: Sex Politics and AIDS in Southeast Asia and co-editor of Public Health and Human Rights: Evidence-Based Approaches. Dr. Beyrer has served as advisor to the PEPFAR Program, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, the Office of AIDS Research of the US NIH, the U.S. Military HIV Research Program, the World Bank, the Royal Thai Army Medical Corps, and the Thai Red Cross, as well as numerous other organizations.
Dr. Beyrer was elected to membership in the U.S. National Academy of Medicine in 2014, and served as the director of the International AIDS Society from 2014 to 2016.
Dr. Beyrer holds an MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MD from the Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine at State University of New York, and a BA from Hobart and William Smith College.