Professor Keith Klugman is the Director of the Pneumonia and Pandemic Preparedness Program at the Gates Foundation in Seattle WA. He is the Emeritus William H. Foege Chair of Global Health at the Hubert Department of Global Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. In addition, he serves as an Honorary Professor in the Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Professor Klugman is a past president of the International Society of Infectious Diseases; and a past chair of the International Board of the American Society for Microbiology. In 2015 Keith was elected to membership of the US National Academy of Medicine. He has chaired or served on numerous expert committees for the World Health Organization (WHO), the Welcome Trust and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He currently serves as a member of the editorial advisory board of the journals of Clinical Infectious Diseases and Emerging Infectious Disease. In April, 2024 Prof Klugman was awarded the prestigious Sabin Gold Medal for his contribution to the field of vaccinology and disease prevention.

Professor Klugman has made his major contributions in the field of pneumococcal research, including antimicrobial resistance. His work demonstrating pneumococcal conjugate vaccine efficacy in the developing world, has led to interventions that continue to save millions of lives especially in Africa and in Asia. He has published more than 650 scientific papers which have been cited more than 53,500 times to date. His h-index is currently 113. His current position allows him the opportunity to contribute to the mission of the Gates Foundation to reduce deaths from pandemics and from pneumonia, neonatal sepsis, meningitis, and antimicrobial resistance in children, thus allowing them the chance to lead healthy and productive lives.