Ben Cowling is Head of the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the HKU School of Public Health. He teaches epidemiology and biostatistics on the MPH curriculum, and his primary research focus is in infectious disease epidemiology. in recent years, he has designed and implemented large field studies of influenza transmission in the community and the effectiveness of control measures. He has strong links with China CDC, and the NIGMS-funded Harvard Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. Ben Cowling is a consultant for the World Health Organization on the development of infectious disease surveillance systems in China. He is a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and a member of the American Statistical Association.