Dr. David Heymann, assistant director-general for communicable diseases at the World Health Organization (WHO), concluded two weeks in residence at Stanford on April 12 by giving a 2007 Payne Lecture. In the lecture, titled "Infectious Diseases across Borders: Public Health Security in the 21st Century," Heymann discussed the collective responsibility to defend public health and surveyed what the WHO is doing to fight emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases on every continent.

Heymann, whom CHP/PCOR Director Alan M. Garber likened to an "Indiana Jones of the medical world," has a long history of field work in communicable diseases. He was involved in the initial characterization of legionnaire's disease and worked on the ground to contain the second outbreak of the Ebola virus. In his present capacity, Heymann oversees the communicable diseases and polio eradication programs at the WHO.