Sir Michael Jacobs FRCP

Sir Michael Jacobs (Physiological Sciences – Pre-clinical Medicine, 1982) is Warden of Keble College. He was previously Clinical Director & Hon. Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases, Royal Free London NHS Foundation and an Infectious Diseases specialist at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

After studying medicine at St John’s and St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School, Michael Jacobs trained as a physician in General Medicine and Infectious Diseases in London and Cambridge. He completed a PhD in Molecular Virology at Imperial College London and was awarded a Wellcome Advanced Fellowship for postdoctoral research. He was subsequently appointed as Consultant in Infectious Diseases at the Royal Free Hospital and later as Clinical Director of Infection, helping to establish an internationally recognised centre of excellence. His main clinical and research interests are the most serious viral infections and medical countermeasures to combat them. He also has a major interest in medical education and has had several leadership roles in postgraduate training programmes and examinations. In 2013–6, an unprecedented outbreak of Ebola affected Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia and Sir Michael worked at the centre of the UK response to the West Africa Ebola outbreak, leading the clinical team that treated Ebola patients in the UK. In early 2020, the same team treated some of the first COVID-19 patients in the UK and it continues to respond to the evolving pandemic. Sir Michael worked extensively on UK, EU and WHO programmes on vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19. In 2016, he was knighted for services to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.