Living Legends in Infectious Diseases is a new podcast series from the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC) celebrating the individuals whose work has shaped modern infectious diseases, antimicrobial stewardship, diagnostics and infection prevention & control.
Each episode offers a window into the challenges, motivations and defining moments that shaped these leaders’ journeys—and continue to shape the future of global health.
Episode 3: Prof. Shaheen Mehtar
In this episode Ian Gould sits down with Professor Shaheen Mehtar (Stellenbosch University, Cape Town; Founding member and Past Chair, ICAN) to trace her remarkable journey from early training in Pakistan and the UK to shaping IPC across Africa. Through stories of mentorship, global outbreaks, WHO policy work, and building Africa’s first infection‑control unit, Mehtar reflects on decades of change in microbiology, AMR, Ebola, COVID, and the challenges of a continent “so huge people underestimate its size.” A conversation rich in history, humour, and hard‑won insight.
Prof Shaheen Mehtar is a retired consultant who continues to work with the Unit for Infection Prevention and Control (UIPC) at Tygerberg Academic Hospital and Stellenbosch University. Trained in the UK in Medical Microbiology, Infectious Disease and Community Health, she later served as deputy director of Public Health in the South Cape Karoo before establishing Africa’s first IPC unit at Tygerberg in 2004. The unit now trains more than 2,500 students annually, from short courses to a Master’s in IPC.
She is an internationally recognised IPC expert and has helped set up programmes across the UK, Europe, Asia, India, the Far East and Latin America. Shaheen serves on multiple WHO committees, including Ebola response, COVID‑19 guidance and ventilation. She is a founder and immediate Past Chair of the Infection Control Africa Network (ICAN), through which she continues to strengthen IPC training and systems across Africa.
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Episode 2: Prof. Jos van der Meer
In this episode Ian Gould interviews Jos van der Meer (Emeritus Professor and former Chairman at the Department of Internal Medicine of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in Nijmegen). Jos charts the evolution of modern infectious diseases—from his discovery of the hyper‑IgD syndrome and pioneering work in innate immunity to his early leadership in antimicrobial stewardship and European science policy. He reflects on scientific breakthroughs, the struggle to revive antibiotic development, the lessons of COVID‑19, and his new career as a graphic artist.
Jos W.M. van der Meer (born April 15, 1947) is emeritus professor and former chairman at the department of internal medicine of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in Nijmegen, Netherlands. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 2003), of which he was vice president and chairman of the division of natural sciences (2006-2012). He is a member of Academia Europaea. Between 2014 and 2016 he was president of European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC). He performs research on cytokines and host defence, chronic fatigue syndrome and hyper-immunoglobulinemia D syndrome (HIDS). He is also active in graphic art and makes cartoons, for example for the Dutch science journal Mediator. Read more on WIKI.
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Episode 1: Prof. Andreas Voss
In this episode Ian Gould interviews Andreas Voss (Professor of Infection Control at the University Medical Center of Groningen), tracing his career from early training in Germany to pioneering work in MRSA surveillance, infection prevention & control and global antimicrobial stewardship. Andreas Voss shares key insights from international collaborations, the evolution of clinical microbiology, and the challenges shaping the future of infectious disease practice.
Andreas Voss is Professor of Infection Control at the University Medical Center of Groningen, The Netherlands. His expertise is in the field of infection prevention and control, in particular the epidemiology of MDRO’s, hand hygiene and behavior change.
Presently, he is the chair for the Dutch IPC Guideline organization (SRI). He has served on the board/executive of many (inter-)national professional societies such as the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC, President), European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID, program director), the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA, international councilor), and the Infection Control African Netwerk (ICAN) and the Dutch Society for Medical Microbiology (NVMM).
Andreas Voss was the co-founder of the International Conference on Infection Control and Prevention (ICPIC) and Founding Editor of the BMC journal Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control (www.ARICjournal.com). He has >400 peer-reviewed journal publications to his name (H-index overall: 81), Google Scholar profile
