Susan Welburn

Susan Welburn is a British epidemiologist who is a professor and Chair of Medical and Veterinary Molecular Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh. Her research considers the parasitic interactions that underpin sleeping sickness. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2025 New Year Honours.

Early life and education Welburn was an undergraduate student at the University of the West of England. She earned a doctorate at the University of Bristol, where she researched the rickettsia-like organisms of Glossina. She started her career at the Bristol Tsetse Research Laboratories, before moving to the University of Glasgow. She has projects in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and Tanzania, focussing on interventions for disease control.

Research and career In 2000, Welburn joined the University of Edinburgh. Her research looks at the parasitic interactions that lead to the transmission of human sleeping sickness. She has investigated the complex mechanisms that underpin parasite differentiation, the transmission of disease and the epidemiology of sleeping sickness. In 2006 she established the Ugandan Public Private Partnership to Stamp Out Sleeping Sickness. She developed a One Health approach for medical and veterinary public health interventions. Welburn is the founding Director of the University of Edinburgh Global Health Academy.

In 2015, Welburn was appointed Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2025 New Year Honours.

Selected publications