London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Natalia Pasternak is a microbiologist, with a PhD and post-doctorate in Microbiology, in the field of Bacterial Genetics at the University of São Paulo. Currently, she is a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University's Center for Science and Society, a professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs (SIPA) and Barnard College, and a fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (USA). She writes for the Brazilian national newspaper "O Globo" and The Skeptic Magazine (UK). She is also a visiting professor at Public Administration School at Getulio Vargas Foundation and is the president of the Question of Science Institute. She has received numerous awards and accolades from multiple countries for her work on science, skepticism and critical thinking, including making the BBC's 100 most influential women of 2021. She has written three books: Science in Our Daily Lives (which won Brazil's national literature prize for best science book in 2021), Against Reality: Science Denialism, its Causes and Consequences, and most recently, What Nonsense, which has become a bestseller in Brazil. Her research focuses on how to improve science communication and combat denialism and misinformation, bringing scientific thinking for future policy makers, and helping to create an international collaboration for science-based global policies.

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Cherstyn Hurley is the immunisation publications manager for the Immunisation and counter measures department of the UK Health Security Agency. She is a WHO trained Infodemic manager which a specialist interest in public heath communications which enable children’s,  young peoples’ and adult health literacy and to reach underserved communities. She is also a member of the Vaccine Safety Network advisory committee and committed to providing high quality vaccination information both on and offline.

Vishaal started his career as an NHS doctor, and subsequently transitioned into healthcare strategy consulting. He worked in strategy consulting for four years, with a particular focus on due diligence for private equity firms, and corporate strategy for hospitals and medical technology companies.

He then chose to pursue a longstanding interest in leveraging digital health to meaningfully improve patient outcomes - initially as business development and client success lead at Ada Health, a venture-backed AI health technology company; and then managing digital health solutions for a FTSE 100 consumer healthcare company that owns global brands such as Durex, Nurofen and Dettol. Vishaal now works at YouTube, where he is building out the brand new Health offering to empower millions of YouTube users and NHS organisations across the UK and beyond.

Vishaal is also a co-founder of Doctorpreneurs, the world’s largest community of medical innovators, governor of the Royal Free NHS Trust, guest lecturer on digital health at London Business School and UCL Global Business School for Health, advisor to various health tech start-ups, and serves on the Our Future Health Technology Advisory Board.