Heidi J. Larson, Ph.D., is a professor of anthropology, risk, and decision science at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK. She also serves as a clinical professor at the Institute for Health Metrics & Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle and as a visiting professor at the University of Antwerp and KU Leuven in Belgium. Larson is the founding director of the Vaccine Confidence Project, where her research focuses on managing risk, building trust in vaccines and therapeutics from trials to delivery, and fostering public cooperation during pandemics and other large-scale crises. She has a particular interest in trust in science and technology, having previously worked as an anthropologist for Apple Computer and Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to inform the early-stage design and introduction of novel technologies.
In 2021, Larson launched the Global Listening Project, a 70-country study investigating ecosystems of trust around health and information technologies, with a focus on public experiences and trust during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Larson previously led strategy and communications for new vaccine introductions in UNICEF’s Global Immunization Programme, chaired Gavi’s Advocacy Task Force, and served on the WHO SAGE Working Group on Vaccine Hesitancy. She is the author of Stuck: How Vaccine Rumors Start—and Why They Don’t Go Away (Oxford University Press, 2020). In 2021, the BBC named her one of the 100 most influential women in the world and received the Edinburgh Award for Science.