Dr Ward received medical and research training at McGill, Oxford (Rhodes Scholar 1977), Johns Hopkins and the University of London. A past Chair of the McGill Infectious Diseases Division, Dr Ward served for a decade as the Deputy Director of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center (Fundamental Science) and for >25 years as the Associate Director of the Center for Tropical Diseases and Director of the National Reference Center for Parasitology. He has led the McGill Vaccine Evaluation Center for almost 30 years. He has served or continues to serve on a number of national and international advisory committees that deal with international health and vaccine use. He recently stepped down from the chair of the CIHR Institutional Advisory Board fo rthe Infection & Immunity Institute. He is also the medical officer for Aramis Biotechnologies Inc, a small Quebec-based biotech that is making vaccines and monocloncal antibodies in plants  His principle research interest is vaccine development and evaluation. He has authored >310 research articles, book chapters and reviews. This work has been supported by a range of public and private institutions as well as industry.