ISAC's Living Legends in Infectious Diseases

Living Legends in Infectious Diseases is a new podcast series from the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC) celebrating the individuals whose work has shaped modern infectious diseases, antimicrobial stewardship, diagnostics and infection prevention & control.

Each episode offers a window into the challenges, motivations and defining moments that shaped these leaders’ journeys—and continue to shape the future of global health.

----------------------

About ISAC

Founded in 1961, the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC) is a federation of Member Societies that aims to increase the knowledge of antimicrobial chemotherapy and combat antibiotic resistance around the world.

Every second year, ISAC organises the International Congress of Chemotherapy (ICC) – join ISAC in Manila in December 2026 for the 34th ICC.

ISAC hosts the ISAC Academy, an online education hub which features resources from ISAC, its Member Societies and other like-minded organisations.

ISAC has two international journals, the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents (IJAA) and the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (JGAR).

Links in the show notes.

Contributors

Host

Ian Gould

Professor Ian Gould is a recently retired Consultant Microbiologist at the University of Aberdeen.

He has advised the Scottish and UK governments, the WHO, the European Commission and other international bodies, and coordinated the EU AMR projects ESAR and ARPAC. He helped establish Scotland’s AMR and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes.

A former President of the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC) and the Scottish Microbiology Association, he has published over 400 papers, edited four books, and co‑founded the Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance. His career includes major contributions to AMS working groups, long‑standing collaborations in Slovakia, and honorary academic appointments. In 2025, ScholarGPS ranked him sixth worldwide for lifetime achievement in AMS research and nineteenth for antibiotic research.

Guests

Guest

Andreas Voss

Andreas Voss is Professor of Infection Control at the University Medical Center of Groningen, The Netherlands. His expertise is in the field of infection prevention and control, in particular the epidemiology of MDRO’s, hand hygiene and behavior change.

He currently chairs the Dutch IPC guideline organisation (SRI) and has held senior roles in multiple international societies, including ISAC (president), ESCMID (programme director), SHEA (international councillor), ICAN and the Dutch Society for Medical Microbiology.

He co‑founded the International Conference on Infection Prevention and Control (ICPIC) and is Founding Editor of Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control. With more than 400 peer‑reviewed publications and an H‑index of 81, he is recognised as a leading figure in global infection control.

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=RPiLnxoAAAAJ&view_op=list_works

Guest appearance on:

Episode 1: Prof. Andreas Voss

Guest

Jos van der Meer

Jos W.M. van der Meer (born April 15, 1947) is an emeritus professor and former chair of internal medicine at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in the Netherlands. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 2003), where he served as vice president and chair of the natural sciences division (2006–2012), and is also a member of Academia Europaea. From 2014 to 2016 he was president of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC). His research focuses on cytokines and host defence, chronic fatigue syndrome, and hyper‑immunoglobulinemia D syndrome (HIDS). He is also active as a graphic artist and creates cartoons, including for the Dutch science journal Mediator.

Guest appearance on:

Episode 2: Prof. Jos van der Meer