Elisabete Weiderpass

Elisabete Weiderpass, MD, MSc, PhD, is a Brazilian cancer researcher who is a naturalized Swedish and Finnish citizen. She is an expert in cancer epidemiology and cancer prevention. Since January 2019 she serves as Director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer. IARC is the specialized cancer agency of the World Health Organization (WHO), based in Lyon, France, and home more than 350 staff dedicated to cancer research. The Agency’s membership and governance is made up of 26 countries (or ‘participating States’).

Earlier on, Dr Elisabete Weiderpass served as leader of the Department of Research at the Cancer Registry of Norway, and of the Genetic Epidemiology Group at the Folkhälsan Research Center in Finland. She was a Professor of Medical Epidemiology at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, and a Professor of Cancer Epidemiology at the Arctic University of Norway. She held Adjunct Professorship positions in Cancer Epidemiology in Brazil, China, and the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is a Visiting Professor at the Dasman Diabetes Institute in Kuwait. She has authored over 730 scientific publications in in peer reviewed international journals. She is an editor of the World Cancer Report, to be launched in 2019.