Professor Peter Mertens worked for over 35 years at the Pirbright Institute (TPI) leading the Arbovirus Molecular Research Group and the Vector-borne Viral Diseases Programme. Prof. Mertens’ research includes the molecular biology, epidemiology, diagnostic assays, insect transmission and vaccines for the orbiviruses, particularly bluetongue and African horse sickness viruses (BTV and AHSV), publishing over 250 scientific papers and supervising over 25 Ph.D. students.

Prof. Mertens played a central role (with colleagues from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics in Oxford) in resolving the atomic structure of the bluetongue virus particle by x-ray crystallography; one of the largest structures determined to date. His group also developed the RT-PCR based diagnostic assays and epidemiology studies used to detect/identify the genomes and track movements of BTV strains/outbreaks across Europe (including the UK) from 1998 onwards. These assays were also used in many other regions, including North and South America, Australia, India and several countries in Africa; achievements recognised by an ‘Innovator of the Year’ award (2013) from the BBSRC.

Prof. Mertens currently holds a Chair of Virology at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, the Higher Education Academy, the Linnean Society, and former WOAH Bluetongue Expert/Chair of the Reoviridae study Group for the International Committee for the Taxonomy of Viruses.