Professor Linfa Wang has joined Virology Journal as Editor-in-Chief. Professor Wang is a leading researcher in emerging infections, including the discovery of novel, potentially zoonotic, viruses in bats. He is joined by ten new Section Editors and over eighty Associate Editors who together cover all aspects of virology, including the viruses of animals, plants and microbes. A full list of the journal’s Section and Associate Editors can be found here.

Research from Professor Wang has significantly advanced our understanding of the role of bats as a key reservoir of human pathogens. His lab played a leading role in identifying bats as the natural host of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus. He has also discovered a number of new viruses, including a novel bat orthoreovirus, Melaka virus, which can cause an acute respiratory disease in humans and Cedar virus, a novel hepinavirus related to the highly pathogenic Hendra and Nipah viruses, but without causing clinical disease.

Professor Wang holds a number of distinguished academic positions. He is Director of the Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore, leader of the Virology Group at CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL), an Honorary Professor of the University of Melbourne and the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

Professor Linfa Wang replaces Professor Robert Garry, Tulane University, USA, who founded the journal in 2004.