After graduating with a PhD in statistics from the University of Warwick, Ben Cowling spent a year at Imperial College London before moving to the University of Hong Kong in 2004. He is currently Professor and head of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong, and co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control. He is Editor-in-Chief of Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, and an Associate Editor of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
He conducts research into the epidemiology of influenza and other respiratory viruses. His research team has characterized how easily seasonal and pandemic influenza viruses can spread in households, and the effectiveness of measures to reduce the risk of infection and transmission including vaccination. His recent research has focused on vaccination strategies in older adults, and immune responses to repeated influenza vaccination. In 2013, he assisted China CDC with the public health research response to the avian influenza A(H7N9) virus outbreak, characterizing the clinical severity and epidemiologic characteristics of human infections. He has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed journal publications.
His work is supported by grants from a number of funding agencies, including a large co-operative agreement with the US CDC on “Research on the Epidemiology, Vaccine Effectiveness and Treatment of Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific” (US$10m, 2016-21), and a Theme-Based Research Scheme grant from the University Grants Committee in Hong Kong entitled “Control of Influenza: Individual and Population Immunity” (US$6m, 2020-25).