Prof. Janusz T. Paweska is a head of the Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases of the National Health Laboratory Service,(NICD-NHLS) Sandringham, South Africa. He is also the regional director of the Global Viral Network and the deputy director of the Southern Center for Infectious Diseases Surveillance.

He was a researcher and senior lecturer in the Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences in Poland from 1982-1991, where he graduated as veterinarian and subsequently obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Sciences and Doctor habilitatus degrees. From 1991-2001 he worked at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, Onderstepoort, South Africa where from 1999 to 2001 he was the Assistant Director, Head of the Department of Virology, and a designated expert of the World Organization for Animal Health for bluetongue and African horse sickness.