Waleed Al Salem

Senior Health Consultant at the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture since January 2021, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

He is a Senior Disease Control Consultant to the Deputy Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture. He also holds multiple roles at the Ministry of Health, including Head of the Biosafety and Microbiology Team, Senior Biosafety and Biosecurity Consultant, and Biocntaminant Laboratories Consultant.

In addition to his governmental roles, he serves as Deputy Editor of the Public Library of Science, Editor of Frontiers Publishing and the Journal of Parasitology, and Honorary Researcher at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.

Previously, he held several key positions within the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, including, including: Animal Health and Disease Prevention Consultant to the CEO of the National Center for the Prevention and Control of Plant Pests and Animal Diseases (Weqaa), and Head of the Project Management Office.

At the Ministry of Health, he also served as, Director of the National Center for Tropical Diseases, Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Laboratory, Consultant to the Deputy Minister, Laboratory Specialist and Director of the Vector-Borne Disease Laboratory. He was also an Associate Editor and Visiting Editor at the Public Library of Science, and a Senior Consultant on Biohazard Containment and Biorisk Management at the United Nations Development Programme.

In academia and research, he was a Senior Consultant in the Biocontainment Laboratories at Umm Al-Qura University, a postdoctoral researcher at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and a specialist in the Microbiology and Parasitology Laboratory at King Saud University.

He won first place in the Professional Achievement Award at the 2019 UK Alumni Awards, receiving the award from British Ambassador to the Kingdom Simon Collis at the British Embassy in Riyadh.

He holds a PhD in Tropical Medicine from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in 2015, a Master's degree in Molecular Biology of Tropical Diseases from the same school in 2011, and a Bachelor's degree in Clinical Laboratory Sciences from King Saud University in 2005.