Dr. David Williams

Dr David Williams is a Technical Officer (antivenoms) in the Regulation and Prequalification Department at the World Health Organization (WHO). Before that, he was the head of the Australian Venom Research Unit at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and concurrent head of the Charles Campbell Toxinology Centre at the University of Papua New Guinea in Papua New Guinea. David worked in Papua New Guinea on the front lines of the snakebite problem there for over 20 years.

In 2008, he founded the Global Snakebite Initiative, and for more than a decade was at the forefront of the effort to establish snakebite envenoming as a WHO neglected tropical disease and persuade the public health community of the need to prioritize sustainable solutions to save lives and prevent families around the world from having to live with the death and disability that a chance encounter with a venomous snake can cause.