Professor Anthony Cunningham AO, FAHMS, MD, FRACP, FRCPA is an infectious diseases physician, clinical virologist and scientist. He is Director, Centre for Virus Research at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR); Director, Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research (ACH2); and Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. Tony built up the NSW State Reference Laboratory in Virology in the mid-1980s before assuming directorship of WIMR in 1996. He was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2010 for ‘service to medicine, particularly in the field of viral research and through the development of leadership of medical and biomedical research’, and in 2015, was elected as an inaugural Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. Tony is the lead author of the ‘Vaccines for COVID-19’ paper, commissioned from the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and is a longstanding consultant for Seqirus, Merck and GSK on vaccines in the ageing and for shingles and herpes. Since stepping down from the WIMR director role, he has continued his research on a NHMRC Senior Investigator Grant and become immersed in COVID-19 research, amongst other advisory positions including the NSW COVID Vaccines Committee.