Opening Keynote Speaker

Kiat Ruxrungtham, MD
Co-director of Chula Vaccine Research Center and Director of School of Global Health
Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University


Prof. Kiat Ruxrungtham is an allergist, immunologist, vaccinologist, HIV medicine specialist, and clinical and basic science researcher. He has more than 30 years of experience in designing, developing, conducting, and implementing various international, regional, national, multicentered clinical trials (phases 1-4) and biomedical laboratory studies as per International Conference on Harmonization (ICH), Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP). He is very familiar with NIH, US FDA, WHO and Thai FDA policies, regulations, requirements and auditing processes. For his clinical trials, approximately one third of them are self-initiated. He assists several international, regional, and national physicians from our vast network to design and develop protocols, and implement the studies. He is also leading the Chula VRC research direction on vaccine development includes Covid19 vaccine, dengue and leptospirosis, HPV, and house dust mite vaccine.

Closing Keynote Speaker

Carlos J. Cuéllar, MD, MPH
URC's Executive Vice-President and Chief Programs Officer, University Research Co. (URC)


Dr. Carlos J. Cuéllar has been URC's Executive Vice-President and Chief Programs Officer since May 2020. Carlos' leadership of large, challenging health service delivery and health system strengthening projects provides him with a deep technical and managerial understanding. He has more than 30 years of experience improving the performance of health programs in the public and private/NGO sectors in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Carlos started his career with the Ministry of Health of Bolivia as an epidemiologist with the National Center for Tropical Diseases and later as a rural district medical officer. He is co-founder and former executive director of PROSALUD — Bolivia's single largest and fully sustainable healthcare NGO. Established in 1985 with USAID funding, PROSALUD is an internationally recognized model with a national network of 14 comprehensive health centers and six referral hospitals providing affordable quality healthcare to underserved Bolivians.

Before joining URC, Dr. Cuéllar was vice president and senior fellow with Abt Associates. At Abt, he worked in Jordan as project director for the Primary Health Care Initiatives, the Health Systems Strengthening, and the Jordan Communication, Advocacy, and Policy projects. He was also a project director for the Maternal & Child Centers of Excellence Project in the Dominican Republic and portfolio manager of the Clinical HIV/AIDS Services Strengthening Project in Mozambique.

Dr. Cuéllar received his MD from the Catholic University of Córdoba, Argentina, a master's degree in public health from the Institute of Tropical Medicine of Antwerp, Belgium, and a Diploma in Management from NUR University of Bolivia.